Victorian dealer wins inaugural Nissan DOTY award

UPDATED: 23/07/2012 NISSAN Australia has named Craig Pearce from Ferntree Gully Nissan in Victoria as its 2011 National Dealer of the Year.

This is the first time the Japanese brand has awarded a specific DOTY award, adding to its ‘Platinum Dealer’ program introduced in 2005.

At a gala event on the Gold Coast recently, 14 dealerships were honoured as achieving Platinum status, which is based on performance criteria spanning all areas of operation.

In addition, the inaugural National DOTY award and four state DOTY titles were presented to those dealerships that achieved the highest overall rating across the Platinum criteria.

While seven-times Platinum achiever Craig Pearce and his team took out the Victorian award, Ray Mountney from Fennessy Nissan collected the WA award, Chris Eschler from Great Lakes Nissan was the top-performing NSW dealer and Warren von Bibra from von Bibra Gold Coast Nissan took home the top prize for Queensland.

Nissan said the state-based awards were aligned with the company’s sales regions, meaning Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory were assessed alongside Victoria (southern region), while the ACT is part of the eastern region with NSW.

Other Platinum Dealers for 2011 included the Armstrong Auto Group (Qld), Edney’s Leongatha (Vic), Huston Nissan (Qld), Jarrett Nissan (SA), Macarthur Nissan (NSW), Midland City Nissan (WA), Muswellbrook Nissan (NSW), Nambour Nissan (Qld), Northside Nissan (WA) and Preston Nissan (Vic).

Nissan Australia managing director and CEO Bill Peffer said the Platinum program recognised the “very best” Nissan dealerships in Australia.

“The criteria for achieving Platinum status demands excellence in every area of a dealership’s operations,” he said.

“These dealerships embody the essence of the ‘Nissan way’, not only in sales performance, but in their strong customer ethic as well.” Noting that 40 dealerships had achieved Platinum status since 2005, Mr Peffer added: “Nissan standards for our dealer network are high and keep getting higher each year, to the benefit of our entire network, our brand and our customers.” Explaining why Nissan had introduced DOTY awards, in addition to the Platinum program, Nissan Australia’s national business development manager (network performance business unit), Michael Hayes, told GoAuto: “The Platinum Dealer of the Year program is continually evolving, encouraging our elite dealers to strive for continued breakthrough performance.

“The state and national Dealer of the Year components provide additional recognition for the ‘best of the best’, which will result in associated aspirational growth throughout the entire network.” Nissan sales are up 17.4 per cent this year, helped by a record 8330 new registrations in June (up 30.7 per cent on the corresponding month last year).

It has enjoyed continued strong sales of its 4x4 Navara utility (up 9.9 per cent YTD), X-Trail compact SUV (up 53.0 per cent), Dualis crossover (up 37.5 per cent) and Micra light car (up 9.4 per cent), and is expecting further growth from new models including the all-new Leaf launched last month and the Almera light sedan arriving in August.

The crucial Tiida-replacing Pulsar and long-awaited redesigned Patrol large SUV are scheduled to arrive early next year, ahead of the all-new Altima mid-size sedan and new-generation Pathfinder later in 2013.