News

1,000 Vertu staff return from furlough to help meet service and sales demand

Time 10:26 am, April 29, 2020

Vertu Motors staff that had been put on furlough are returning to work.

The dealership chain, which has 133 sales and aftersales outlets, put most of its 6,000 employees on furlough as the country went into lockdown and it closed most showrooms, but now it has brought back 1,000 staff as it sells vehicles online and others are repaired for key workers.

It has also been able to shift its Gateshead contact centre to workers’ homes.


Yesterday, chief executive Robert Forrester, pictured, tweeted that dealerships had taken a total of 2,825 phone calls, 1,816 services were booked and 380 sales inquiries made over the internet the day before.

BusinessLive reported Forrester as saying that some 1,000 Vertu staff had returned to work, with the figure rising daily. Most are technicians but some are sales staff.

The vast majority of its dealerships are open for service and maintenance work.

Last Friday (24th), Vertu announced that because of the Covid-19 crisis it was postponing publication of its full-year results and annual report to June 3. Covering the year to February 29, they were originally due to be published on May 6.


Meanwhile, its annual meeting, which was to have taken place in late June, will now be held on August 20.

Robert Forrester on Car Dealer Live: Our business will never be the same again

More: Dealers call for click-and-collect handovers for new car buyers when lockdown lifted

More: Vertu Motors – Our plan to get through the coronavirus crisis

  • Join our WhatsApp group to get updates sent straight to your phone. Email us via the website here to get a link to join.
  • John Bowman's avatar

    John has been with Car Dealer since 2013 after spending 25 years in the newspaper industry as a reporter then a sub-editor/assistant chief sub-editor on regional and national titles. John is chief sub-editor in the editorial department, working on Car Dealer, as well as handling social media.



    More stories...

    Auto Trader Advert
    Server 108