Motor Trader caught up with David Kateley – Director Automobile at the Suzuki GB head office in Milton Keynes. In the reception area, the renowned Suzuki Swift and racing legend Barry Sheene’s LJ80 4×4 Suzuki Jimny occupy pride of place. Just beyond, a door leads to training rooms and workshops where the skills of dealers and technicians are honed.
Kateley, who officially took over from Dale Wyatt in January, first joined Suzuki GB over 20 years ago in 2003 in a business development role with Suzuki Financial Services. Taking on a regional sales manager position and a general manager role along the way, he now has the top job as Director Automobile.
“It’s been quite a nice transition. I had the pleasure of working alongside Dale for 10 years, we had a good partnership. Now, it is my opportunity to lead the business going forward. It would be quite easy for individuals that come into a director role to think about changing things, slapping their authority on aspects, but because I have been with the brand for a long time, I respect the DNA that we have with our network.
“We have quite a unique relationship with our network. It’s about partnership and we tend to do a lot of consultation with them and in some ways our relationship is the strength of our success.”
Under pressure
That partnership has come under pressure in recent months. The future shape of Suzuki’s UK dealer network has received extensive coverage. It had been on the cards for some time. Kateley recalls regional meetings with dealers in June, following assessment of the ZEV Mandate implications, where it was highlighted that volumes in Q4 would be difficult.
In consultation with its dealers, Suzuki was balancing conflicting demands: managing customer expectations, keeping the factory on board in Japan and maintaining dealer profitability. Something had to give.
In December, a business meeting was held to update dealers about plans for 2025. Last year had been demanding for the brand, delivering 13,059 registrations, down -13.2% on the prior year in a market that grew by 2.6%. Market share slipped to 1.18% from 1.4% in 2023.
Kateley says: “We had some hard facts that we could not ignore. Legislation is a driving force that nobody can get around, ICE mix is determined by EV sales, our volume based on legislation will probably be limited to between 20,000 to 25,000 units over the course of the next two or three years.
“Taking that into consideration and looking at our dealer network, we had too many dealers. We had 129, at 20,000 units that’s a throughput of 100/200 per site which means profitability would be impacted. We had to make some very hard decisions, grasp some nettles, and that fell on me as part of my first actions in January.
“I thought it was very important as a business to act with integrity, as we are renowned for at Suzuki. I took the time with my co-director Denis Houston to book in teams calls with every dealer. If I could, I would have gone around the country, but we had a short time frame.”
Bad news was given to 29 dealers as they were told that they were being terminated. All but six of these dealers will retain authorised repairer status.
The deciding representation plan was done on the basis of location, profitability, and volume throughput. Customers have been reassured that existing and prospective customers will be within a reasonable travelling distance of their dealer.
‘Together Towards Tomorrow’
Suzuki has a good reputation with consumers and dealers. In January 2024, Suzuki was named number one automotive brand for the 8th time in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) results published by the Institute of Customer Service. Results are based on trust, experience, customer ethos, emotional connection and ethics. Suzuki ranked 1st above 26 automotive brands and 15th position overall across all measured sectors from 270 named organisations.
On the dealer side, the NFDA Dealer Attitude Survey has consistently recognised Suzuki GB’s strengths with regards to profitability, as well the manufacturer’s relationship with its dealers. Its network is very profitable, making a 1.5% return on sales which is understood to be industry leading.
Achievements such as these are recognised by Kateley as “collective success.”
He says: “We’ve got an established set of people that understand the business and understand the industry. That builds confidence for the network, the consistent management structure. The people that have developed into the higher roles come from within, that is a legacy aspect.
“The dealers and the partnerships they have with their customers and with us, that is a legacy aspect. We have six regions, and we have established around 17 or 18 dealers per region. Consultation, transparency and relationships are the cornerstone of how this business is successful and I have got no plans to change that.”
Speaking with Kateley during National Apprenticeship Week, his thoughts on the importance of nurturing future talent in-house are clear.
Kateley says: “As a business, we have an apprenticeship programme that we run every year. Around October/November we run a graduation ceremony usually at the British Motor Museum and we invite all the apprentices and their loved ones to celebrate their success.
“The industry itself, the technician side of it is quite a challenge from a recruitment perspective and to grow your own is important so we have put a lot of effort and support into it.”
Optimising opportunity
Looking ahead Kateley sees key challenges in terms of EVs and used car volumes.
“How will we know we have been successful this year? Our objective is “25 in 25”. The first is new cars, a 25% mix in EVs which is slightly short of the mandate, but our car does not arrive until the second half of the year. Our base level for this year will be 25% but in 2026 we will have the car for the whole year.
“A 25% increase in used car volume, at the moment 46% of our used cars are only going through our network. Nearly half of our cars go through independents, so we need to get those cars back in the network. In the vehicle parc, we want to increase our vehicle retention by 25%,” says Kateley.
The manufacturer is striving to maximise its vehicle parc, acknowledging limitations with regards to new car volumes in 2025 Suzuki GB recognises the opportunity to grow its used car and aftersales business, and reclaim business.
Kateley says: “Last year, we had a really strong year up to the end of September. We were in growth. Last year was also the first year of the ZEV Mandate which was a challenge for us, and a challenge for the industry. For us, we did not have an EV, but we will have one this year.”
Electric future
Suzuki unveiled its first mass-production BEV, the e Vitara, towards the end of last year in Milan, Italy. Following production at Suzuki Motor Gujarat in India in the spring, sales of the e Vitara are expected to begin in the summer of 2025.
Kateley says: “The e Vitara is a new electric vehicle, but it is not called something different, it is called ‘Vitara.’ There is a big legacy aspect.”
Suzuki GB’s dealer partners had the opportunity to view the vehicle and give their take. Kateley noted: “Feedback was unanimously positive, very positive, which is a good start because the car will go on sale in the second half of this year. It’s our first EV; it is a massive leap forward for us and it is a great car. The e Vitara will measure up really well against the competition. In January, we took the residual value specialists – cap-hpi, Glass’s, Auto Trader and Motability – to Hamamatsu, Japan.
“They had the first experience of being able to feel and drive the car and have access to the chief engineer and the executive officer of BEV solutions. They had unique insight into the car and they were blown away by it.”
Suzuki’s plan is to introduce a further three to four new cars by 2030, with the next arriving in 2027.
“We have four product pillars – Tech, Efficiency, Quality and Trust. Tech is all the tech you get as standard – every car comes with all the technological infrastructure you need without extra cost. Efficiency, any Suzuki you buy whether it is hybrid or electric will be efficient.
“We are renowned for expected quality, Japanese engineering at its finest, and trust is about customer experience. Our dealers in the showroom demonstrate these four pillars to the customer,” says Kateley.
