I started as a Parts Apprentice many years ago with VW and Audi and that was where my passion for cars and the motor industry started, after completing my Apprenticeship I joined a Toyota franchise as a Parts Advisor and worked my way up to Parts Supervisor and then Parts Manager.
As my experience of Parts and the motor world grew, I became more ambitious and have since had roles within Commercial Vehicles as well as cars and have headed a few big Parts operations with Mercedes Benz and VW Group until there was finally an opening at Dick Lovett BMW where I jumped at the opportunity to work for Dick Lovett and have been here seventeen months and loving every minute of it.
As a Parts Manager, I lead and motivate my team to achieve departmental and Brand targets such as Parts Sales and profitability. I mange department expenses, deal with any customer issues, manage and maintain accurate stock control, promote the Parts business via marketing strategies and Trade customer visits and supporting the dealership regarding Parts and COSHH.
There have been many highlights since I joined, but there are two that stand out the most. Within my first year at Dick Lovett, I took our Parts Department to number 1 in the UK for Parts Profit Performance, which is something that had not been achieved before so it is a ranking I was very proud of. The second was very recently where we broke our own record for most Parts Sales within one month.
Our BMW and MINI Parts departments are separate entities as they are in different locations on our Bristol campus and each carry their own Parts stock. As I’m the Manager of both, I’m supported by my Parts Supervisors, one for each brand, and they internally supervise their own teams. Our BMW and MINI Parts team consists of seven Parts Advisors, two Apprentices, one Trainee Parts Advisor and five Drivers. Despite being two departments, we are very much one Team and consider ourselves as one big department. We all support and assist each other.
The combined years of BMW experience within the team is over 160 years, with four of our team members having been with the Group for over twenty years and one colleague Tony Ball has been with us for 48 years and is the longest serving member at Bristol, which shows the loyalty and commitment our staff have working for the Dick Lovett Group.
I’m truly honoured to have such a great team and couldn’t have the successful Parts Department we have without them.
The people are the heart of the company, which is what we are all about at Dick Lovett. They are a company where they truly believe in and support their people, and you can tell from the culture within the group that people are genuinely proud of what they do and care about it. My other favourite part of working for Dick Lovett is working with the fantastic brands they represent and driving a BMW of course.
There will always be challenges and things to overcome in everything we do in life, and work is no different. As we are one of the biggest BMW volume sites in the UK, there are different challenges every day but that’s what makes it exciting. What matters is how you deal with the challenge and move forward.
My biggest challenge since I have been here was to maintain and further improve the financial success of the Department that had been held previously by the Former Manager for many years, almost like taking over as a football Manager and your team are at the top of the league and you want to keep them there.
My personal goals are I would love to progress further within Dick Lovett maybe into a group role within Aftersales where I can share my knowledge and experience and eventually my ultimate ambition would to be in a Head of Business role.
One of the reasons that I joined Dick Lovett, is because of the family values and culture of the group, so I hope our core values never change.
As we keep growing, I hope that we remember where we came from, and why we do what we do. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in my career so far and love working for Dick Lovett and the BMW brand. I’m looking forward to the future ahead with this great company.
