City West Country’s Mercedes-Benz South West car retail operations has celebrated success in Best Companies’ Q1 workforce satisfaction survey.

The retailers, which operates the German premium brand’s car retail sites in Exeter, Plymouth, Taunton and Truro, took home top spot in the industry category, Automotive Best Companies to work for 2022, as well as placing 17th in Regional Best Companies to work for 2022 category, and 51st in The UK’s Best Large Companies to work for 2022 category.

Among the other car retail sector businesses to appear in the rankings were: CitNOW, 21st in the top 75 mid-sized companies to work for; Vindis Group, 74th in best Large Companies to work for; and Cox Automotive, 9th in the best big companies to work for.

Mercedes-Benz South West said that its success in the rankings proved that its partner brand’s mantra of ‘the best or nothing’ applies to both its customers and people alike.

Mike Wickins, the managing director of Mercedes-Benz South West, said: “It is our people that make our business so special.

“Through our employee engagement programme, facilitated by Best Companies, we aim to identify how our people feel about working for the business and take tangible steps to improve their working lives.

“The true measure of our success is how engaged our people feel, which makes our financial performance self-fulfilling.”

In a heavily COVID-impacted financial year to December 31, 2020, City West Country Holdings recorded a turnover down 20.9% at £235.4m (2019: £297.4m) and pre-tax profits down by 9.9% at £6.2m (2019: £6.9m).

But the business managed to maintain a strong relationship with its employees through the crisis.

In the Q1 Best Companies survey 64% said they were happy with their work/life balance, as 82% agreed their team was fun to work with and 61% said their current job was good for their personal growth.

Richard Syree, head of human resources at Mercedes-Benz South West, said: “Our people are at the heart of everything that we do and we therefore place a huge emphasis on their engagement, ensuring that we are able to offer an environment within which why they can thrive.

“To be recognised by Best Companies in this way is something that we are immensely proud of.”

Commenting on the importance of employees to his business, Jamie Vindis, the managing director of fellow Best Companies business Vindis Group, said: “For nearly 10 years, I have been introducing our company to new prospective staff by saying ‘I genuinely believe that our business can only be truly successful when we have 700 truly successful individuals working in it’.

“Success doesn’t come from the business to the staff; it comes from the people that make it what it is today.”