We provided plenty of reasons to celebrate at our annual General Managers’ Conference, outlining the ‘recipe for success’ amid uncertain market conditions.
Lookers hosted over 600 colleagues from right across the group at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, where the upbeat message aimed to inspire our people to continue achieving ‘operational excellence’.
Lookers operates 153 franchised dealerships across the UK and has implemented a successful growth strategy over recent years, with CEO Andy Bruce highlighting our formula of having ‘The Right Brands in the Right Locations’ as a key reason for our year on year growth over the last five years.
The day long programme also saw Chief Operating Officer Nigel McMinn ask his colleagues to “focus on the details” and strive to be “best in brand” in order to retain a top quartile customer service standard and reduce the impact of negativity in the wider economy.
Another key message was the importance of maintaining a balance between defined group wide customer service standards and management at a regional level.
Nigel McMinn said: “It is vital that we maintain consistency right across our retail network by firstly getting the basics right every time. This will allow us to achieve operational excellence and consistently achieve top quartile status at both a national and regional level. This was very much the message at the 2018 Lookers General Managers’ Conference, which I’m happy to say was a resounding success.”
To emphasise the importance of having the right ingredients in place, guests were treated to a cookery masterclass by British-Jamaican celebrity chef and musician Levi Roots, who also inspired the audience with the story of his up bringing and breakthrough on BBC2’s Dragons’ Den.
Following the conference, guests were treated to a gala dinner, which included entertainment from comic and impersonator Rory Bremner, who took aim at political figures including Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.
During the dinner Nigel McMinn also announced the 2018 finalists of the Lookers Excellence Awards, which will see 100 Lookers colleagues and their guests treated to a trip to Monaco in May, where the winners will be announced.
Andy Bruce said: “The Lookers Annual Conference is one of my favourite days of the year as it brings together the wealth of talent we have here in the group, while giving us a chance to discuss ways in which we can all improve our respective businesses. Having the right brands in the right locations is still paramount to everything we do, but this has to be complimented by having the right ingredients within the dealerships themselves, whether that’s having the right levels of stock, being smarter about the way we work, or the experience our customers have when they walk through our doors. This is what this year’s conference was all about.”
