Jatinder Aujla

Operational Board Director wholly responsible for the performance of all aspects of the Jaguar Land Rover Division and reporting directly to the Group CEO.

Key Aspects -

- Direct reports comprised of 9 General Managers, Divisional Finance Director, Divisional After Sales Director, Sales Director, Fleet Director and HR Executive

- 700+ Colleagues employed across the division

- Retailed in excess of 10,000 units

- Average price of New Cars delivered £45,000+

- Annual Turnover £400M+

Key Achievements -

- Appointed as an Operational Board Director within 9 months of the acquisition

- Consistently delivered planned profitability

- Created a diverse business that "hedged" against risks through generating profits from diverse activities

- Actively sought out unique opportunities for growth that were unexploited by competitors e.g. Special Vehicles where we created over 200 unique vehicles with an average spend of £12,000 generating over £3M in additional profits

- Seamlessly integrating 6 separate acquisitions within the first 3 years post acquisition

- Oversaw the investment of over £80M to completely redevelop every retailer to the latest brand requirements

- As referred to by my CEO in my appraisal, at one point the business was generating over 35% of the whole JLR Networks UK profits despite only representing 5% of the Network size

- Ultimate achievement was to simultaneously achieve the four key goals of any business - Top Quartile Network Profitability, Consistency across All Sites, Hugely Stable Team and decent customer satisfaction across every business.

- I'd add to this the pleasure of seeing colleagues rise through the business and fill a great many of the most senior roles

- Finally, we had no loss making months

I was head hunted by my previous employer to return to the Farnell business as the Operations Manager for the whole group.

Key Achievements -

- Achieved profitability at both sites and consistency in all areas such as accounting standards, cost levels/allocation, training and individual performance.

- Identified and nurtured talent for future senior roles

- Acquired Leeds Land Rover from Sytner Group in 2009

- Leeds was a loss making business selling less than 400 units

- Internally promoted "nurtured talent" from the existing business to fill the key management positions in Leeds

- Head hunted top talent to fill other key roles especially in After Sales

- Over £1M profitability in the first year of operation

- Once matured, the Leeds business contributed in excess of £2M and was the "Jewel in the Crown"

- Gained Board Approval to invest over £1M to relocate Bradford Land Rover to a new prominent site

- Re-developed and expanded Leeds Land Rover by moving the After Sales departments to an adjacent facility and using the space to create a 30+ car indoor showroom - a "destination" site

- EBITDA of £4M+

- Circa 4,000 units delivered

- 175+ Colleagues

The Division performed at the highest levels and received several awards in recognition -

• Land Rover UK Retailer Group of the Year 2013
• Land Rover UK Retailer of the Year 2013 - Farnell Leeds
• Land Rover UK Service Centre Of The Year 2013 - Farnell Leeds
• Land Rover UK Retailer of the Year 2012 - Farnell Leeds
• Land Rover UK Service Centre of the Year 2012 - Farnell Leeds
• Land Rover UK Retailer Of The Year 2011 - Farnell Bradford
• Land Rover UK Service Centre Of The Year 2011 - Farnell Leeds

In 2013 the business was acquired by Vertu Motors PLC for £30M+

I was head hunted for my first divisional role as the Brand Manager for 3 recently acquired Land Rover retailers located in Edinburgh, Perth and Cupar.

The key challenge was to transition from working for a mutual to the much more stringent requirements of a PLC. I reporting to Nigel McMinn (Nigel went on to head Benfield Motor Group and Lookers PLC)

- Direct Reports were 3 General Managers and a Divisional Team comprising a HR Executive, After Sales Director and Finance Director

- Over 200 colleagues

- Circa £150M Turnover

- Delivered over 3,000 units

The key tests were to succeed in a region where I had no established reputation, manage three experienced head strong General Managers and crucially, find talent to fill key vacancies without the comfort of knowing anyone in the area.

I achieved success through adding value and using my brand experience and relationships to open up more opportunities.

Profitability was significantly improved from a loss to over £5M.

Key lessons learnt -

- Cost control

- Consistency across multiple sites

- Debt management

- Stock control

- Cash generation

- Marginal Gains

- Multiplying impact across multiple sites

- Communication

- Creating a shared culture and vision

- Benefits of low colleague turnover

After my success at Copley Land Rover, I was head hunted for the role of Dealer Principal at Farnell Land Rover Guiseley.

The Farnell business comprised two retailers that had been in family ownership for over a century before being acquired by the Co-operative group a few months prior to my appointment. The business had a strong association with the Land Rover brand but was loss making.

My key achievements -

- The loss recorded in 2000 transitioned to a £400K profit in 2001

- Profitability further improved by well over 100% in both 2002 & 2003

- Sales Volumes increased to over 1,200 New and Used units

- Guiseley finished first for "Sales Vs. Objective" in 2001, 2002 & 2003

- Awarded Regional Land Rover Retailer of the Year in 2002 & 2003

This business was acquired by Perrys in 1997 as their second Land Rover retailer and expectations were high.

However, the business was almost completely the opposite to its sister site and simply repeating the same strategies proved unsuccessful and the business recorded a substantial loss in its first year.

By 1999 the situation was untenable and I was appointed to replace both the General Manager and Sales Manager.

It was critical to immediately reverse losses and in the longer term, build a business that could consistently achieve its profit potential.

I achieved both these tasks by devising two main strategies that were specific to this retailer and consciously different to the sister site.

The first strategy addressed the immediate requirements and involved reinvigorating the existing team, adding fresh talent with broader experience and fully exploiting my Brand relationships to acquire stock at preferential terms and a marketing strategy that generated sufficient enquiries.

The other longer term strategy was to re-build relationships with existing customers and involved initiatives such as moving my desk to the front door and thereby greeting every customer. Gaining direct feedback and better understanding their requirements and frustrations lead to a particular focus on quickly resolving complaints/product faults and building our credibility.

This latter strategy increased customer retention, repeat business and most crucially, the amount of referrals our customers made to their friends and family.

The net result was that the business went on to generate the second highest volumes in its region of 16 other retailers, immediately become profitable and deliver seven figure profits in my second year.

Due to my success as a Sales Executive, I was promoted to the role of Business Manager within the same retailer.

The first key challenge was to transition into a management role within the same team. Respect and credibility were won through adding value and actively helping the team to convert more leads, close more sales through second facing and remove any obstacles that wasted productive time.

Operationally, I learnt the value of tight enquiry management, techniques to generate leads when natural activity troughs and crucially, to allocate qualified leads to the Sales Executive most likely to have rapport with that enquirer.

This was my first working role after leaving University.

The first 3 months involved a thorough induction where I worked for a minimum of 2 weeks within every role in the business such as Sales Admin, Warranty Admin, Service Reception, Technician, Valeting etc

The experience gained in this period has proven to be invaluable throughout my subsequent career.

Whilst I was not a natural at "Sales", my ability to quickly gain credibility and trust with customers ensured I became the top Sales Executive in my first full year.

My performance was recognised through the "Perrys Group High Flyer" award and a luxury trip to New York.