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Growth
But Dyer's focus isn't solely on digital developments, and he is seeking continued growth across various areas of the business on the back of improving market conditions in terms of new vehicle registrations and both consumer and business confidence.
The company is up 5000 vehicles year-on-year, particularly with its SME business through the Network brand, and with commercial vehicles, which now number 38,000 units.
"When you look at areas like SME, the sector is a very important part of the UK economy, and not so used to leasing as the corporate sector, so opportunities that exist there will be very important," he declares.
"LCVs are a different dynamic. You are very close to the core business of customers you are working with. The core service proposition has to be very good. [You are] expected to meet the needs of the customer." At present, only half of light commercial vehicle operators lease their vehicle.
"We put a new team in three or four years ago [led by head of commercial vehicles Mark Lovett] and it's grown 30% in that time," Dyer continues. "It reflects the increased appeal of leasing to CV audiences and that we've got the right team in the right place at the right time."
Dyer says the commercial vehicle market is changing in terms of awareness of weight, payload and capacity of the required vehicles.
"Our focus is on the light to medium CV area - that's where our expertise is and the most important priority in terms of what we bring," he says. "We want to see in what areas we can offer advice to customers, to understand their needs to do their business."
But it's not just selected areas Dyer is targeting, and despite increased competition he's looking for increases across the board.
"We're very excited as a business. We've invested a lot, particularly over the last few years with Network and LeaseplanGo, backing brands with a view that they have the capability to grow and giving them the foundations to do that in the right way," he says. "I don't feel we've got anything we'd consider a barrier to what we can achieve. We see opportunities to enlarge the leasing market and that's an important part of what we need to do - identify opportunities and innovate and change around them.
We're not just going to be doing the things we do better, but bring leasing to a wider automotive market - particularly in the retail arena that requires a different way of thinking."
He sees individuals accepting that £199 or £225 a month on a small vehicle is a reasonable expense alongside broadband and mobile phone monthly bills: "That will be a major growth opportunity and we're making sure we've got the capability to do it."
That retail focus will have the knock-on effect of increasing Leaseplan's buying power, with the associated economies of scale, in theory at least, helping to control monthly rental rates.
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