INDUSTRY’S VERY BEST CAR, VAN AND BIKE RETAILERS CELEBRATED AT THE 17th AUTO TRADER RETAILER AWARDS
• Kate Carter, Head of Sales at eStar Truck and Vans wins inaugural Woman of the Year Award.
• New Car Retailer of the Year included for the first time.
• JMC Used Cars, Alexanders Prestige, and Group1 crowned car Retailer of the Year.
The UK’s top automotive retailers gathered at London’s iconic 8 Northumberland Avenue yesterday for this year’s Auto Trader Retailer Awards. Now in its 17th year, 2024 marked the introduction of two brand new categories, New Car Retailer of the Year, and the Woman of the Year, ensuring this year’s Awards truly celebrated the very best in automotive retail.
With nearly 150 retailers attending the ceremony, the prestigious central London venue was full of thunderous applause as 30 retailers lifted trophies in recognition for their exceptional customer service, digital excellence, innovation, commitment to sustainability, and for successfully adapting to the challenges of today’s exceptionally fast- moving market.
The top accolade, the Retailer of the Year, was awarded to nine businesses in total, representing the very “best of the best” across the car, van and bike markets. JMC Used Cars (under 50 cars), Alexanders Prestige (50-100 cars), and Group 1 (over 100 cars) won in the car category, whilst Agnew Volkswagen Van Centre (under 20 vans), Clark Commercials (20-50 vans), and Van National (over 50 vans) lifted trophies in the van category. Bennetts Motorcycles (under 20 bikes), Hastings Motorcycle Centre (20-50 bikes), and Edinburgh Harley-Davidson (over 50) were crowned the UK’s very best bike retailers.
This year’s Awards recognised the top performing automotive retailers in the UK across nine different categories, including the Customer Experience Award, which is based on one of the largest mystery shopping exercises of its type. The category saw 1,500 of Auto Trader’s best performing retailers gradually whittled down to just nine deserving winners across car, bike and van, determined through three mystery shopping phases: email (1,500 retailers), telephone (700 retailers) and then a full digital audit (250 retailers).
Of the nine categories, five were self-nomination, including: The Innovation Award, which recognised a retailer that had successfully implemented a bold innovation that’s markedly improved its business; People & Culture Award, identifying those businesses that are going above and beyond to provide the very best working culture for its colleagues; The Sustainability Initiative Award, which showcased the best examples of businesses taking steps to lower their carbon emissions and help combat climate change; and the Rising Star Award, celebrating those burgeoning businesses destined to set the industry alight. This year’s very deserving winner was PMB Automotive Enthusiasts.
This year saw the highest number of self-nominations ever to enter the Awards, which were judged by an independent panel made up of experts from Mony Group (MoneySuperMarket), LinkedIn, Ocado Intelligent Automation, John Lewis, The Automotive 30% Club, and The Carbon Literacy Project.
This year also included the brand-new Woman of the Year Award, recognising the exceptional women in automotive retail. Introduced to support the Automotive 30% Club’s ‘Moonshot’ initiative, the self-nomination award celebrates inspiring women working within an operational management role in a retail organisation who is delivering results and destined to be a future leader.
Speaking at this year’s awards, Julia Muir, founder of the Automotive 30% Club, said: “More needs to be done to increase female representation in all operational management roles, which serve as a vital springboard to future senior leadership. That’s exactly what this award is designed to do, and this year’s shortlist showcases some of the brilliant trailblazing women already in an operational management role within a retail business; it’s key we give them the recognition they deserve to inspire more women to follow them.”
The winner of the first ever Auto Trader Woman of the Year was Kate Carter, Head of Truck Sales, at eStar Truck and Van, who Julia described as “truly inspirational”. This year’s finalists were Verity Cornelius, General Manager, Bristol Street Motors Sunderland, and Samantha Platt, Aftersales Director, Acorn Motor Group.
The Retailer Awards are a genuine highlight for us in the calendar as it’s an opportunity to celebrate the very best in automotive retailing. Winning these awards is tough, it’s independent, its data and fact based, and it’s unbiased, so even to be among this year’s shortlist is a huge achievement, particularly in a market that’s not been easy this year. The only constant in our industry is change and so it’s a privilege to come together and celebrate the retailers who continuously evolve and adapt and who take every challenge as an invitation to innovate.
Coe continued: “I’m especially proud that this year we’ve introduced the Woman of the Year category, recognising the many exceptional women who are so integral to the success of our industry. We believe all businesses are better for having high levels of diversity which is why we believe it’s so important to recognise women and other groups that are currently underrepresented, so that they might inspire others to join what is a massive and important industry in the UK.”
Follow us on our social channels to keep up with the latest news, insights and company developments.
If you would like to be added to our News & views mailing list, or have any media-related enquiries, please contact our press team:
Sign up to our email alerts service:
Join our news & views mailing list
or submit media-related enquiries:
