The no-nonsense Ineos Grenadier is a very different SUV to launch in the era of electrification and sustainability, so appropriately the company is planning a different type of dealership network to sell and maintain the rough, tough 4×4.
In place of a network of identikit standalone dealers, Ineos Automotive is blending agricultural equipment franchisees, specialist used operators with a core of established OEM car dealers into a cohesive network, whose 24 UK sales, parts and service sites were revealed last month.
The mix of locations is striking, with a rural emphasis reflecting the appeal of a car designed for living its life in farmyards and country lanes rather than supermarket car parks and motorways.
Big cities like Birmingham, Edinburgh and Nottingham are on the list. Yet Greater London, with its population of 10 million, is served by just three dealers; and one of those is in Kent.
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Meanwhile, country locations, like Belton in Lincolnshire, Ribble Valley in Lancashire and Bridgwater in Somerset will have their own Ineos dealers. “The cocktail we’re trying to shake here is the right partner, with the right mind-set, in a place that works, with resources that are useful to us and our customers,“ said Gary Pearson, head of UK, Middle East and North Africa for Ineos Automotive.
Pearson, an experienced sales executive, joined Ineos after four years developing McLaren’s dealer network and previously worked for 14 years in sales at Audi . “The usual approach for setting up a network is to use ‘drive-time’ data to place dealers as close to as many customers as possible,” he says “and that’s why we end-up with auto clusters all in the same place.”
Moving away from that template, the Ineos network will mix three agricultural dealers and three specialists alongside unique space at 18 conventional OEM sites, all run on the agency model including parts and service.
Labour rates and menu servicing items will be standardised across the country for “transparent pricing” and in remote areas, a secondary network of up to 12 service garages, many with Bosch accreditation, will fill gaps in coverage.
Much work is ongoing to ready the network for first deliveries at the end of 2022, with the first dealer set to open its doors in June, although demo vehicles will take several more months to arrive.