Vertu Motors recognises ‘exceptional colleagues’ through awards

Vertu Motors has celebrated "standout" staff from a year of car retail growth at its 2022 CEO Management Awards.

Nominations are made by the CEO Committee, which identified employees who had delivered an outstanding level of personal performance and championed the company’s values, said the AM100 PLC.

This year’s winner of the Tom Fairgrieve Company Person of the Year Award was Paul Johnson, forecourt manager at Bristol Street Motors Widnes Nissan, as nominated by Steve Gould, operations director for the Group’s Renault Nissan division.

Gould said: “Paul has put his heart and soul into the business and into helping his dealership’s local people. He supported the community during the pandemic by ensuring their fuel station remained open 24 hours a day.

“Paul’s team are serving up the best value petrol and diesel within miles to help support the local community with the cost of living, despite plenty of companies profiting from increasing fuel prices.

“Paul holds the Group’s values close and consistently makes the right calls on pricing, when many would have simple taken the win.”

Johnson received a call from the chief executive, Robert Forrester, to congratulate him on his achievement, thanking him for his dedication to his local community.

Forrester said: “As the group continues to grow, it is increasingly more difficult to win one of these awards – just being nominated is a great achievement.

“To single out 10 individuals was incredibly hard, but the winners have all delivered a stand-out performance to demonstrate the unteachable values we strive for at Vertu Motors - talent, drive, energy, attitude and character.

“We are a big group, but individual performances can make a significant difference to how well we do. Great teams are built by great individuals and it’s important we recognise this, which is what these awards do. I’d like to congratulate them all; they can be rightly proud of their achievements.”

The full list of 2022 CEO Management Awards winners was:

• General Manager of the Year - Brian Naughton, Birmingham Ford Fleet
• The Tom Fairgrieve Company Person of the Year - Paul Johnson, Forecourt Manager, Bristol Street Motors Widnes Nissan
• The Bill Teasdale Accountant of the Year - Claire Barlow, Vertu Aylesbury Mercedes-Benz
• Sales Manager of the Year - Dean Bradbury, Bristol Street Motors Birmingham Ford
• Service Manager of the Year - Paul Miller, Bristol Street Motors Exeter Hyundai
• Parts Manager of the Year - Darren Nottingham, Vertu Aylesbury Mercedes-Benz
• Business Manager of the Year - Graeme Vasey, Assistant Sales Manager, Vertu Honda Sunderland
• Workshop Controller of the Year - Dylan Hurley, Bristol Street Motors Chingford Vauxhall
• Accident Repair Centre Manager of the Year - Mark Hudson, Vertu Accident Repair Centre York
• Central Services Manager/Director of the Year - Matthew Scattergood, Assistant General Counsel, Central Services

Vertu Motors will strebngthen its position in the AM100 this year following its December addition of its first Ferrari supercar and Volvo dealerships through the £117m acquisition of Helston Garages.

Just a month earlier it had become the UK’s largest BMW Motorrad motorcycle retailer with the £4.2m acquisition of two Yorkshire dealerships from Saltaire Motor Company, trading as Allan Jefferies.

Now the group looks poised to expand its car retail footprint in Scotland with the development of a new-build Macklin Motors Toyota dealership in Ayr.