MAN Truck & Bus UK recognises business success at conference.

The MAN network in the UK has been celebrating its successes at the company’s annual Dealer of the Year Awards event held at the Powerscourt Hotel Dublin.

Three awards were presented in the Dealer of the Year Awards 2014, recognising the success of small, medium and large dealers throughout the UK.

The winners were AN Richards of Llangollen (small), Imperial Commercials of Peterborough (medium) and DSV Commercials of Immingham (large).

They will receive £10,000 to invest in their businesses. The runners up, RK Trucks Belfast (small), MTB Swindon (medium) and MTB Manchester will also receive £5,000.

MAN’s head of UK network development, Andy Turner, said: “Our annual dealer awards are now an established highlight of our corporate events calendar.

“It’s about our dealers proving their continuous commitment to the operators of MAN vehicles, supporting them 24hours a day, seven days a week.

The success of these six dealers is a testament to the dynamic and innovative performance of their management and the teams they have around them. Each operation has consistently achieved very high standards in meeting MAN’s strenuous UK service levels and those performances have formed the solid base on which these hard-fought awards are judged.”

A N Richards company secretary Johanna Cooke: “We are delighted to have won the title for the second year running and having held the service provider of the year award for several years before that.

“We are a family-run firm, AN Richards was founded by my grandfather and it is now run by Bryn and Gary, his sons, and now me my siblings, and our partners are all involved.

“We have a wealth of local knowledge and pride ourselves on our local knowledge and commitment to keeping customers’ trucks on the road and working for them. We don’t have the space to have trucks waiting and we turn things around efficiently.”

“The prize money is going to be reinvested in the MAN brand. For the last seven years we have been building our hire fleet and we are now at 72 vehicles. MAN trucks are bulletproof as far as we are concerned and we have just bought three new Euro6 tractor units and the cash will go towards the deposits on those. They are something we wholeheartedly believe in.”

Donal Rice, owner and managing director of RK Trucks (Belfast), added: “R K Trucks is passionate regarding the support it provides to MAN operators in Northern Ireland.

“Our Aftersales personnel at both of our dealerships are delighted to receive this award in recognition of the service they provide throughout Northern Ireland. Our objective is to maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction in support of potential future MAN truck sales.”

Steve Affleck, regional director of Imperial Commercials (Peterborough): “Our Peterborough business has been established for more than 40 years and is recognised locally as one of the best providers of service in the area.”

“In recent years we have invested heavily in our colleagues, facilities and equipment to improve customer service levels. Winning Dealer of the Year is testimony that our investments are paying off. Our team simply just do the right things.”

“The £10,000 will be invested in the refurbishment of our parts & service reception. The total project is estimated at £30,000 and will provide an improved environment for customers and colleagues alike.”
Mark Allen branch manager MTB Swindon: “This is the fourth year we have had our names on the board at the event. We have been runner-up three times and winner once and that in itself is quite an achievement.

“We have 16 staff here and it is thanks to their hard work that we have been recognised again.

“The cash prize will be reinvested back in to the business, but at the moment I am still thinking about where it will be best spent.”

Chris Marshall, director of DSV Commercials, Immingham, said: “This is the second year we have won the award and as far as I am concerned it is down to the work of the whole team. It formally recognises the effort they put in day in day out, and the award recognises the values we place on customer service.

“Last year we used the prize fund to repaint the workshop floor, to improve the working environment. This year we are looking to invest the cash in a new tachograph calibration facility. This will increase the number of services we can offer and expand the business.”

MTB Manchester branch manger David Ashworth added: “Since the recession struck in 2009 we have worked to consolidate our business and we, as a team, have been building our business consistantly since 2011 and the fact we are runners up for the second year running reflects the efforts of the staff all working together to provide the excellent customer service that has been recognised by acheiving this award, and hopefully, if we keep up this momentum we can continue to improve our customer offering and be recognised again.“