Nissan shakes up senior sales role

NISSAN Australia has announced that former customer service chief Ian Moreillon will return to Australia next month as general manager of national sales and fleet, having been on assignment at Nissan Motor Co in Japan for the past four years.

Mr Moreillon will return on November 2 to the newly created position, which combines both sales and fleet responsibilities and sees him become a member of the company’s management operating committee (MOC).

Previously general manager of loyalty, customer satisfaction and service for Nissan Australia, Mr Moreillon is credited with building a global sales and service quality team while at the Japanese auto giant’s Yokohama head office.

In a statement, Nissan said Mr Moreillon will focus on three key priorities: delivery of sales target of 75,000 units for the current financial year ending March 31, 2012 a seamless integration and workflow across Nissan’s fleet and model line sales teams and “accelerate preparation for four all-new model launches in the next financial year including Nissan Almera, Leaf, Patrol and new small car.”The latter refers to the Tiida small car replacement, to be known as either Pulsar or Versa, while the Almera reference confirms the nameplate Nissan Australia will use for its forthcoming Micra-based light sedan, which will go on sale here in the first half of next year.



Left: Nissan Tiida replacement. Below: Nissan Almera.

Nissan Australia has advised that Mr Moreillon will take over the senior sales role previously held by executive general manager of marketing and sales Tim Stuckey, who left the company last month.

However, Nissan Australia managing director and CEO Dan Thompson, who has been fulfilling these duties since Mr Stuckey’s departure, will continue to oversee the company’s marketing and product planning activities for the time being.

Reporting to Mr Thompson directly is general manager of sales and marketing Cameron Cooper.

Nissan Australia spokesman Jeff Fisher told GoAuto that the company was not in a hurry to find a new marketing chief to serve at board level, and that Mr Moreillon’s return would enable Mr Thompson to focus on marketing strategy before a new manager was appointed.

“Until Dan looks at the whole marketing function, as to what kind of balances he wants, he’ll stay overall in charge of that – at least for the next couple of months or so,” he said.

Mr Fisher said that the new fleet and sales combination for Mr Moreillon reflected the company’s fresh emphasis in the fleet area.

“The fleet side is growing in importance for us and we want to make sure it’s addressed properly, so it becomes a portfolio of an MOC member – a la Moreillon – and that’s why it’s sitting with him now.”Current general manager of national fleet at Nissan Australia, Mark Rohrlach, who moved from the role of southern region state manager in June after previous fleet manager Luke Patterson headed into retail, will report to Mr Moreillon.

Mr Thompson said: “Over the past 12 months we have announced a series of organisational enhancements to support our aggressive expansion strategy. Our ongoing commitment to deliver significantly improved customer, brand and network engagement is resolute.” The company’s stated goal is to become the top full-import brand in Australia by the end of its next financial year (March 2013), with a 10 per cent overall market share.