Robert Deane has been appointed as the brand new industrial operations director of Volvo Automobile UK, bringing in depth automotive sector expertise from corporations like LiveWire and Harley-Davidson.
Deane succeeds Nicole Melillo Shaw, who was promoted to the managing director function at Volvo Automobile UK final autumn.
Deane brings with him a wealth of expertise from the automotive trade, having held senior positions in numerous famend corporations. Previous to becoming a member of Volvo, he served because the industrial director for worldwide markets at LiveWire, an electrical motorbike firm, and held the function of director of gross sales planning and community improvement for the EMEA areas at Harley-Davidson.
His in depth profession additionally contains tenure at Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen Group UK, and PSA Peugeot Citroën, the place he labored each within the UK and China.
Melillo Shaw stated: “I’m delighted with Robert’s appointment. His expertise in main the transition to a direct-to-consumer mannequin, coupled along with his longevity throughout the automotive sector, will assist us to reinforce our client journey and retailer relationships. These will finally drive additional development for our model.”
Deane is eager to make an impression at Volvo. He stated: “We’re in a fast-changing enterprise panorama the place we’d like to have the ability to do greater than merely provide nice merchandise and meet client expectations. In addition to making the patron expertise as clean, simple and reassuring as potential, we’ve got to strengthen and preserve mutually rewarding relationships with retailers as we develop our D2C gross sales technique – that is one thing I’m very obsessed with.”
Final summer season Volvo Automobile UK transitioned to direct-to-consumer new automotive gross sales, integrating on-line and bodily experiences.
This transfer adopted Volvo’s latest initiatives, together with on-line new automotive gross sales, Care By Volvo subscription gives, and OEM-approved used automotive gross sales. The shift to direct gross sales goals to reinforce the patron journey whereas sustaining the significance of bodily dealerships in Volvo’s technique.
