Sydney dealer named as Ferrari’s best – again

FERRARI’S dealership in Sydney was recently named Ferrari Australasia’s 2019 Dealer of the Year, making it back-to-back wins for the Waterloo-based supercar retailer.

Ferrari Sydney is part of the McCarroll’s Automotive Group and operates in parallel with Ferrari North Shore, with owner Simon McCarroll at the helm alongside general manager Angelo Ruberto and the highly regarded teams at both Waterloo and Artarmon.

The group’s marketing manager Courtney McColgan was named 2019 Marketing Manager of the Year, while North Shore’s Adriano Giorgi took out the 2019 Aftersales Manager of the Year award ahead of Waterloo’s Tony Altieri.

Mr Giorgi also recently won the equivalent award for Maserati Australia/New Zealand, which is run through independent distributor European Automotive Imports (EAI), part of the Ateco Group.

Craig Pryor from Continental Cars Ferrari in Auckland, New Zealand, took out Ferrari Australasia’s 2019 Sales Manager of the Year award, ahead of North Shore’s Rocco Mammone.

This is the fifth national title for Ferrari’s Sydney dealership among the Italian supercar marque’s small, exclusive retail network, and its third in the space of four years.

As well as achieving the highest mark in 2018, the Sydney team won the award in 2016, with Continental Cars taking out top honours in 2017.

Held in conjunction with the annual dealer meeting for Ferrari’s retailers in Australia and New Zealand, the awards presentation ceremony was attended by senior executives including head of Ferrari Far and Middle East Hub – and interim chief executive of Ferrari Australasia – Dieter Knechtel, retail marketing manager Andrew Yeung and regional aftersales manager Vincenzo Bombardiero.

Ferrari’s DOTY program has been running since the factory took control of local distribution from Ateco/EAI in 2013, and Ferrari Australasia says criteria for selection is based on “highest achievement in 36 areas including customer satisfaction, workshop utilisation, proactive customer engagement through marketing activities and quality of aftersales throughout the year”.

Despite the general industry downturn, Ferrari had another solid performance in Australia last year, delivering 257 supercars to customers over the 12-month period – up 6.6 per cent (16 units) over the previous year.

Like many dealerships, Ferrari Sydney and North Shore have in recent weeks taken significant steps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and executed a health and safety action plan which includes assigning health and safety officers to all dealerships and service centres, undertaking intensive sanitisation measures and offering out-of-dealership services.

The latter extends to picking up and dropping off vehicles for service, holding personal test-drive and vehicle demonstrations at a customer’s private residence or another suitable location, and running virtual vehicle demonstrations by one of the dealership’s product specialists.