Steve Jelliss has been named as Mazda‘s new fleet and remarketing director, succeeding Peter Allibon who, after three years in the role, becomes sales director.
Jelliss has transferred from his role as head of aftersales, which he ran for six years. During his time he oversaw the introduction of several initiatives including Mazda’s digital service logging system.
Mazda Motors UK’s managing director Jeremy Thomson, said Jelliss had the opportunity to take the brand’s growing fleet capabilities to the next level and develop aftersales, which forms a “key buying reason for fleet customers”.
Mazda’s previous sales director, Mark Cameron, has joined Jaguar–Land Rover in a brand development and sponsorship management capacity.
Jelliss’s remit will include overseeing the extension of Mazda’s small feet programme for another two years, following a successful initial 12-month scheme.
Launched last May through 16 dealers, the initiative attracted a further 19 franchised outlets and Mazda claims “others are queuing up to become involved”.
The programme majors on sub-50 fleets and has generated accounts with 360 businesses, which collectively operate more than 7700 company cars.
To date 276 vehicles have been delivered to customers via the scheme, which matches the local knowledge of dealers to an outsourced specialist sales team, established by Magma Services.
Four regionally based business development managers support dealers in maximising local business opportunities and spend at least half their time working on prospecting, marketing and joint visits.
While a “significant number” of small and medium-sized businesses continue to purchase their cars outright, Mazda has identified a growing leasing trend, with attendant improved cash flow.
The project’s next stage involves development managers training dealer staff to “pro-actively manage our fleet customers” according to Jelliss.
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