2:44 pm, September 20, 2013
MERCEDES-BENZ’S UK president and CEO has declared his company needs to have a ‘Downtown London’ dealership.
Speaking to Car Dealer, Marcus Breitschwerdt said the Three-Pointed Star needs to adopt an Audi City-style urban dealership as the Capital fits the German luxury brand perfectly.
‘I am a great supporter of city facilities,’ Breitschwerdt told us. ‘We have our Chelsea dealership and we used to have representation in Piccadilly – but I say let’s take a look at a Downtown London dealership.’
Before coming to the UK to head the Mercedes business, Breitschwerdt was president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Canada. There he oversaw the glitzy redevelopment of the Mercedes-Benz dealership in Downtown Toronto.
‘I spent millions in Toronto to establish the Downtown store,’ explained Breitschwerdt. ‘I think Mercedes-Benz should be represented in the most important city in Europe. There should be a Downtown London.
‘Business controllers would say that in inner London, 80 per cent of visitors visiting such a store would be tourists, so it would not pay the bills. I say so what! They will go away and buy a Mercedes-Benz somewhere else.
‘London is one of the two or three places in the world where the rich and glamorous people live and it creates trends. London is such a city where we should have downtown representation.’
Mercedes Downtown Toronto isn’t the only dealership in the world where the Mercedes brand is showcased. The firm recently opened a brand experience site in Tokyo, Japan, and Breitschwerdt is keen to create another site in London.
‘There are investment levels that need to be approved and there needs to be business cases, but we recently did something like this in Tokyo and it was a huge success,’ he said. ‘It was made in modern Japanese style and does not look like a traditional car dealership. There’s a cafe and a grocery place while upstairs there are computers, coffee and some Mercedes-Benz cars.’
But surely Mercedes-Benz UK already has its own experience facility at Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands in Surrey?
‘Yes, but sometimes to get one thing you have to sacrifice something else,’ says Breitschwerdt. ‘We have the one thing and it works very well [Brooklands]. We have 350,000 visitors a year there and critics would say, “Yes but a large number of those visitors are kids”.
‘That’s my point exactly! In the past, the business controllers would say you need to have one or the other. But now, I say we need both [Brooklands and a Downtown London dealership].
‘One is a brand centre for Mercedes for British people and it helps us a lot. The other would be a place that would fly the Mercedes flag worldwide. You cannot ignore the most important city in Europe. We have to be there.’
