Breeze Motor Group - Case Study

Representing Volkswagen since its first showroom opened in 2000, Breeze Motor Group now operates centres in Pole, Southampton and Portsmouth for the brand as well as commercial vehicles. The group became a Suzuki dealer in 2022 and added Ducati Bournemouth to its growing portfolio in 2023.

The issue

As the group expanded its brand representation and its number of sites, its senior management team was faced with a common problem in the sector – the lack of oversight of the entire business due to multiple systems in operation. It was increasingly difficult to keep track of stock inventory across all its businesses in real time including ensuring online marketplaces were managed properly.

The solution

Breeze Motor Group implemented Autofinity’s ViHUB platform in July 2024. The technology, which collates vehicle information from multiple sources to create one up-to-date pool of data for each vehicle. The data incorporates description, specification, price and current status, for example, whether it’s on a test drive or a deposit has been paid, in one place. Change the information in ViHUB and all other integrated platforms including marketing channels such as Auto Trader, manufacturer and group websites, are automatically updated.

The difference

Matt Robertshaw, group head of sales: “We didn’t know such a system existed. Listening to the Autofinity team was an absolute revelation. I was presented with the kind of platform I had wanted for years but had accepted couldn’t be done so I was very excited by what was on offer.

“Inefficiencies due to manual input of information into different systems was par for the course especially as several marketing sites require information in slightly different formats. It was laborious, time consuming and totally inefficient until Autofinity came along. Just like magic, the inefficiencies and double keying disappeared.”

Cost efficiencies

ViHUB has delivered group-wide cost efficiencies particularly surrounding content publication of vehicles for sale. The platform has freed up staff time allowing them to spend more time on imaging and improving their quality.

“It’s impossible to quantify but the efficiencies are very obvious to us as a management team and in terms of what our employees experience in their day to day roles.”

Perhaps most tangibly the reduction of workload for its digital team. Responsible for ensuring vehicles have everything in place including images for online marketing, Breeze had made the decision to employ a third team member which is now no longer necessary.

“ViHUB has not only enabled our digital team to better manage their workload but the quality of our images has improved because we can easily identify the vehicles with missing images or information and we react immediately to rectify.

“We have improved our timings to upload a vehicle to our website and all other marketplaces by three days which in turn has helped our stock turn.”

Increased sales

Since ViHUB has been live, the group has experienced a 12% uplift in sales. Greater visibility of stock, more time to focus on selling vehicles and looking after customers rather than managing the stock, uploading vehicles for sale and manually making changes to prices or mileages on several different platforms, has had a significant impact on the team’s selling success.

Stock management

The group’s stock across its sites is now completely visible and accessible in real time making inventory management easier and more efficient. The Breeze team now also has visibility of pipeline vehicles and a handle on its ‘hidden’ stock such as demos, courtesy cars and staff vehicles.

“If a customer has a specific request, we can better match their requirements because of the oversight we now have of everything in our inventory.”

With 220-250 used cars in stock as well as its fleet of demos, rental and staff vehicles plus new stock in the pipeline, the senior management team is responsible for 400-500 vehicles at any one time.

“We have all that information in one place instead of several different systems. We have a speed of access that wasn’t previously possible and it is much easier to find the information we need.

“Previously, we relied on our sales teams to update prices which entailed accessing multiple systems and making the same amend repeatedly, now our executives simply make the change on the ViHUB platform and it is automatically updated everywhere. We are now also confident there are no discrepancies and we know when a car has been sold so we don’t run the risk of selling a vehicle twice over. Before, the sales staff checked via phone calls or email that a certain vehicle was still in-market.”

Commercial vehicles

Deploying ViHUB for its Volkswagen commercial vehicles site has proved particularly useful with accurate and consistent descriptions in detail.

“There are so many nuances with vans that smaller details can be missed which can be the difference between a sale or not. The fact that ViHUB pools all available data on any one vehicle to automatically generate highly descriptive and user-friendly specification for each van has had a massive impact so we can provide the detail prospective buyers want when searching online. One van derivative can have five different types of backdoor which may sound trivial but to the person who is buying that vehicle for a specific purpose, it’s hugely important.

“Customers looking for specific features to fulfil their working requirements can immediately see online whether a model is a good match. It means they don’t waste their time enquiring with us to check and we don’t waste ours having to respond.”

The partnership

When working with a partner trust, openness and transparency is essential. The team at Autofinity prides itself on establishing the best working relationships with all its clients which continues throughout the partnership.

“Working with Autofinity has been easy, smooth and enjoyable. The willingness to understand our business and the demands we need to make on the system to help us work more efficiently ensures the relationship works well. The Autofinity team suggest things to us and their recommendations are always relevant. We work in partnership with them and the relationship isn’t rigid. Everything seems possible and if we have a specific request, they have the imagination and creativity to be able to come up with a solution.”