A hands-on approach at Morgan Group’s Upington dealerships

Now, about 14 months into his role as dealer principal, Coetzee oversees a network comprising Nissan, GWM, Chery and Kia, a satellite dealership for Jetour, and two pre-owned vehicle operations. Managing the different brands and facilities requires careful coordination, particularly in a region where customers and businesses can be separated by considerable distances, he tells Dealerfloor.

The Morgan Group’s Upington operation is spread across three premises. Nissan and GWM share one site, with a Morgan Pre-owned dealership directly opposite. About 3km away, Chery and Kia operate alongside another pre-owned outlet, Morgan Pre-owned Exclusive, which focuses on newer and more upmarket vehicles, including demonstration vehicles.

“The group has also established a satellite operation for Jetour at the Nissan and GWM premises. The intention is to assess the brand’s performance in Upington before deciding whether to pursue a full dealership,” Cobus says.

Although the dealerships operate under different manufacturers, Cobus’s responsibility is to make the operation function as a coordinated business rather than a collection of separate outlets. “I oversee the sales operations at Nissan and GWM where my office is located, he tells us.

One of the practical challenges of managing several franchises is ensuring that staff and workshop capacity are used effectively. Rather than automatically adding technicians whenever workloads increase at a particular site, Cobus says they have been exploring ways to share available resources between the workshops.

The group has a workshop manager overseeing the different brands, with service facilities at the Nissan and GWM premises and at the Chery and Kia site.

A pilot initiative has involved coordinating technicians’ working hours and moving available capacity to where it is needed most. Once technicians have completed work on vehicles for their primary brands, they can assist with other suitable jobs, depending on the workload.

The approach is intended to keep technicians productive throughout the working day while making better use of the group’s existing staff. The system requires communication between workshop management, service advisers and the individual brand teams, but it allows the operation to respond more flexibly to changing demands.

“Upington’s geographical position adds another dimension to the job. The town serves a broad surrounding area that includes smaller communities, agricultural businesses and mining interests,” Cobus explains to Dealerfloor.

He estimates the dealership’s area of responsibility at a radius of approximately 200km to 250km. The nearest major centres are some distance away, with Kathu about 200km from Upington and Kimberley and Vryburg roughly 400km away.

The group therefore has to maintain relationships with customers across a wide area, while also making itself visible in the local community.

Its activities include participation in local events, farmers’ days, golf days and community gatherings. Cobus says the dealerships try to become involved whenever opportunities arise, including events organised by churches and other local organisations.

“Agriculture, including raisin and livestock farming, and mining activity are important contributors to the regional economy. Coetzee believes business conditions in Upington are closely linked to the fortunes of these sectors.

“Within the dealership network, he said GWM was among the strongest-selling brands, followed by Chery. Nissan, Kia and the other franchises also serve customers in the region, including fleet operators,” according to him.

Cobus tells us his automotive career kicked off in 2004 in Carletonville, joining Mercedes-Benz before moving to Hyundai, where he spent about 10 years and eventually became the sales manager.

He subsequently worked at NTT Volkswagen in Potchefstroom before moving to Vredenburg on the West Coast to join the Rola Group’s Volkswagen operation.

He had been there for about nine months before the opportunity in Upington made him think twice about swopping the sea for the sand dunes of the Northen Cape.

The move brought a substantial change in responsibilities. Instead of managing a single sales department, he became responsible for a multi-franchise operation covering several manufacturers and business functions at different premises.

Dealerfloor asked him about his management philosophy. “For me it centres on clear expectations, accountability and mutual respect.” He believes a dealership’s performance depends on the strength of the relationships between each level of management and the people reporting to them. “Your sales manager is just as good as his salespeople, then your DP is just as good as his managers are,” he states.

He prefers to give employees clear job descriptions and realistic targets rather than manage through constant pressure. Progress, he believes, comes from setting achievable goals and working towards them consistently.

Respect is central to that approach, regardless of an employee’s position. “If you can’t handle the next guy with respect, then you can’t really expect respect from a person,” Cobus says.

For the Morgan Group’s Upington operation, his priorities are therefore practical: make the different franchises work together, use people and facilities efficiently, remain responsive to customers across a wide territory and continue assessing opportunities for growth.