Nissan fixing dealer fences

UPDATED
04/04/2014NISSAN Australia’s new CEO and managing director, Richard Emery, says that restoring a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship with his 193-strong dealership network is his number one priority.

Taking over the reins on April 1, the former Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific general sales manager said that winning the total confidence all dealers – while reassuring them that their point of view would always be heard as Nissan implements changes – was vital to the company’s progression plans.

“It is job number one,” he told GoAuto at the latest X-Trail launch in Victoria.

“It’s not so much about our relationship with our dealers, it’s ensuring that they feel confident that the decisions we are making are the right ones in that they have a level of communication that is appropriate.

“We are not going to agree on everything because we come at the task from two different angles in terms of the outcomes that we want. They’re close, but there will always be some level of differences.

“All I want to a dealer to be able to say to me in a year’s time is ‘Richard, I haven’t agreed with everything that you guys have done in the last 12 months, but I know that you considered our view, and I know that you considered them in some of the solutions, or that you’ve made adjustments when we’ve put our point of view forward’.

“I will certainly be offering to them a level of communication, cooperation and consistency – if we say we’re going to do something, we keep doing it and we do it for all dealers on the same basis.

“That’s what grows confidence and respect between the two parties, and that’s the area I will most certainly be concentrating on early on.”