Lightstone Auto, in an effort to highlight and reward the hard work of F&Is, has just celebrated its first annual Star Reacher Awards. With these awards, the F&Is performance is measured for their contribution to the sale of value-added products & services within their respective dealerships.

This is the first-of-its-kind incentive programme available exclusively to Lightstone users and clients through their bespoke Signio platform, which was launched during April 2021.

Pieter Wessels, Managing Director at Lightstone Auto, congratulated all the winners and runners-up in the inaugural programme. “Their achievements are exceptional as the competition was tough, with more than 700 F&I managers competing in the programme from across South Africa.”

The programme measures F&I managers’ performance across five key focus areas that encourage industry excellence and drive digital adoption in the industry. Every quarter, winners in each category are awarded prizes and this culminates in an annual awards ceremony where overall performance over the 12-month period is recognised.

Wessels says: “At Lightstone, Auto we believe in the value and impact F&I managers have on a motor dealerships’ profitability, and this programme creates an opportunity to recognise and celebrate top performing F&I managers. I look forward to this annual programme becoming a highlight in South African dealerships’ calendars.”

The overall winners received holiday prizes to the value of R30 000 each and the runners-up received experience-based prizes to the value of R8 000 each.

The results:

* F&I managers are linked to their dealers, who are segmented into categories based on average monthly sales volumes. This ensures that F&I managers compete with colleagues at dealerships with similar sales volumes. The categories are segmented as follows:

Topaz Category (Entry volume)

Emerald Category (Low volume)

Sapphire Category (Medium volume)

Amethyst Category (High volume)

Ruby Category (Mega volume)