Johannesburg – Mitsubishi Motors South Africa has awarded dealers and selected dealership staff for strong performances across a variety of dealership roles.
The Mitsubishi Dealer of the Year awards recognise excellence across the brands dealerships and follow a comprehensive and ongoing evaluation process that measures a wide variety of aspects of dealer performance.
This includes factors such as sales volumes, the meeting of sales targets, parts sales, after sales business excellence and customer satisfaction.
“Our dealers are the lifeblood of our brand and many of them have been with us through challenging and prosperous times, continuing to represent the brand with passion and professionalism. We truly value the contribution that our dealer partners and their staff make to the ongoing growth of the exciting Mitsubishi Motors brand in South Africa,” says Francois Gultig (General Manager, Sales and Operations) at Mitsubishi Motors South Africa.
Collectively these efforts were recognised when Mitsubishi Motors South Africa was presented with the Top Performer award in the After Sales – Customer Experience category at the brands annual global after sales conference in Thailand. The award measures service excellence in comparison to that of dealers in other regions and against local competitors by way of a KANTAR Competitive Base CSI Program. This program measures performance by tracking customer satisfaction across the whole after sales service journey over a six-month period annually.
“In recent years Mitsubishi Motors SA have prioritised the relationship with our dealers by giving them the support they need to perform at their best. It gives us great pleasure to recognise the best performing dealers and sales executives as well as after sales role players that do their best day in and day out as the customer facing representatives of the Mitsubishi brand,” added Steven Terblans (General Manager Aftersales at Mitsubishi Motors SA).
The well deserving dealership winners
Dealers compete in various categories based on the size and location of the dealership with awards for retail sales, total units, fleet sales and exports. The best performing staff members are also celebrated.
In the sales vs retail sales category, Mitsubishi Motors The Glen, Mitsubishi Motors Mobeni and Mitsubishi Motors Empangeni were the best performers.
Mitsubishi Motors East Rand, Mitsubishi Motors East London and Mitsubishi Motors George sold the most retail units across the three categories of dealers.
The best performing Fleet sales dealers across the three categories were Mitsubishi Motors Umhlanga, Mitsubishi Motors Mobeni and Mitsubishi Motors Middelburg.
All these factors are taken into account for the overall Dealer of the Year award and regular winner, Mitsubishi Motors East London, clinched this prestigious title.
Outside of South Africa’s borders Mitsubishi Motors Mozambique and Mitsubishi Motors Zambia were awarded as the top performing regional dealers and Mitsubishi Motors Zimbabwe the most improved regional partner.
Top performing individuals
The hotly contested sales executive award in the large dealer category was clinched by Megan Moonsamy from Mitsubishi Motors Umhlanga. Sharing the honours in the medium dealer category are Sipho Makuliwe from Mitsubishi Motors East London and James Motlanthe from Mitsubishi Motors Hatfield. The award is of particular significance for Motlanthe who enters retirement and ends a stellar career with this prestigious award. MG Laubscher from Mitsubishi Motors George walked away with the honours in the small dealer category.
As has become tradition Mitsubishi Motors SA also awards the personnel that keep customers cars running optimally in the workshops and at the parts counters of the respective dealerships.
Service Advisors Gerard Peterson and Jan Lottering from Mitsubishi Motors Menlyn and Natasha Slater from Mitsubishi Motors Kimberley were recognised with Diamond Service Awards for National and International CSI.
Parts Managers Grant Collinicos from Mitsubishi Motors Paarden Eiland, Lindiwe Mokoena from Mitsubishi Motors Bedfordview and Charmaine Werner from Mitsubishi Motors George received recognition for their contribution to keeping customers vehicles on the road.
The Service Managers from Mitsubishi Motors Menlyn, Mitsubishi Motors Bedfordview and Mitsubishi Motors Pietermaritzburg walked away with the laurels in this category.
An exciting time for Mitsubishi dealers
Mitsubishi dealer floors around the country are jam packed with new models including the exciting new Triton bakkie and stylish Outlander, while the Xpander Cross is set to roll onto showrooms soon.
“We look forward to working with our dealer network in launching and supporting these new products into the South African market by providing an exceptional sales experience and a hassle free after sales journey through our well-established dealer network,” concluded Gultig.
Dealer of the Year awards:
Sales Volume
- C-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors George
- B-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors East London
- A-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors East Rand
Sales percentage to target
- C-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors Empangeni
- B-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors Mobeni
- A-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors The Glen
Parts Managers
- C-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors George – Charmaine Werner
- B-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors Bedfordview – Lindiwe Mokoena
- A-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors Paarden Eiland – Grant Collinicos
Service Managers
- C-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors PMB – Terrence Moodley
- B-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors Bedfordview – Victor Thom
- A-sized dealers – Mitsubishi Motors Menlyn – Kallie Landsberg
Service Advisor
- Natasha Slater – Mitsubishi Motors Kimberley
- Jan Lottering – Mitsubishi Motors Menlyn
- Gerard Peterson – Mitsubishi Motors Menlyn
Sales Executive
- Megan Moonsamy – Mitsubishi Motors Umhlanga
- Sipho Makuliwe – Mitsubishi Motors East London
- James Motlanthe – Mitsubishi Motors Hatfield
- MG Laubscher – Mitsubishi Motors George
Best Export Dealer
- Mitsubishi Mozambique
- Mitsubishi Zambia
Most improved Export Dealer
- Mitsubishi Malawi
Overall Dealer of the year
- Mitsubishi Motors East London
Fast Draw
Patrice Motsepe – Founder of ARM (African Rainbow Minerals): After a successful career as a lawyer at Bowman Gilfillan, in 1997, Motsepe launched a business of his own called ARM (African Rainbow Minerals). He turned it into one of the largest mining and mineral groups in the world. Since then, he has diversified into several other key sectors, including financial services. In 2008, Motsepe became a billionaire and the first black African on the Forbes list. In 2016, he invested in a USD1 billion fund as part of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, launched by Bill Gates. He also launched a new private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, which is focused on investing in Africa. In 2017, he was ranked as South Africa\’s fifth richest person, with a fortune exceeding R1.3 billion.