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.
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