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Pendragon simplifies lease brands
Date: 01 October 2007 | Author: Tristan Young
Mid-sized lease firm Pendragon Contracts has revealed a new plan for growth including a simplification of its branding.
From today (1 Oct) Pendragon will drop the Vardy Contracts and Bramall Contracts names and operate all of its contract hire businesses under the one Pendragon Contracts brand.
Pendragon, with a 26,000-strong fleet, acquired Vardy and Bramall lease divisions when under its dealer group parent's acquisitive growth strategy.
As part of the changes managing director Neal Francis has appointed four key directors. The team consists of sales and marketing director Mike Roe, operations director John Wardle, customer services director Irene Emery and divisional finance director Sue Daldorph.
Speaking exclusively to BusinessCar at BusinessCar Live, Francis said he hoped to capitalise on the decreasing number of mid-sized leasing firms with the consolidation of the bank-owned large businesses.
"We're going to grow steadily - we're not going to go out and buy business," said Francis. He added that growth to between a 30,000- and 50,000-car fleet in three to five years was a realistic plan.
Commenting on how he would achieve the growth, Francis hinted: "There are a few new routes to market that we're nearly ready to launch. We've got a product and a way of getting to the market that we'll be launching early next year."
Francis ruled out growth through a direct acquisition of a stand-alone lease firm, but said that if the Pendragon dealer group bought a rival, which included a lease firm, his division would absorb it.
He also added that Pendragon Contracts' dealer group ownership meant that it worked in a different way to its bank-owned rivals. "For example, we think about what cars people will want in three years' time, as 70% of our cars go back on our own forecourts."
(back row, from left) Sue Daldorph, John Wardle, Irene Emery, (front, left), Neal Francis and Mike Roe.
