11:33 pm, January 4, 2012
RENAULT has admitted axing a large chunk of its dealer network just days before Christmas wasn’t ‘ideal’.
The French firm’s PR director visited Car Dealer’s offices yesterday, following the publication of the editor’s blog which hit out at the firm for its catastrophic timing when slashing its network.
In the blog, the editor argued that Renault should have allowed those who’ve worked faithfully for them for years the chance to enjoy the festive season without a huge cloud hanging over their heads.
‘We appreciate the timing wasn’t ideal,’ said the Renault spokesman. ‘But the dealer conference was always planned for the end of the December and that’s when the message had to be given.
‘You said in your blog that dealers weren’t told, but that’s not true – all dealers were told it’s just the people you spoke to might not have known.
‘Some dealer principals may have kept the news to themselves for fear of losing good members of staff.’
When the news broke Car Dealer contacted 10 Renault dealers and not one of the staff members we spoke to knew about the models being axed or the dealers getting the boot. Frankly it got a bit embarrassing that we were the ones telling dealers what was going to happen.
‘We thought long and hard about a gap in between telling the dealers and the press, but it would have got out,’ said the Renault spokesman.
‘As it happened, we told the dealer conference on the Thursday, then announced it to the press on the following Monday.
‘This was a huge decision that had to go to the very top at Renault. It was always going to be difficult.’
The PR boss said the dealers that got the chop were mainly because their territories overlapped with others and with the firm’s sales forecasts drastically cut, the brand simply couldn’t support its current network numbers.
‘Dealers just about broke even last year,’ said the spokesman. ‘Clearly it couldn’t continue that way so action had to be taken. The dealer council supported our moves.’
What do you think? Let us know by tweeting the editor.
