Fiat Chrysler came within a few weeks of pulling Jeep out of the UK in 2012 as sales plunged and dealers bailed out – then Steve Zanlunghi pitched a plan at his boss Sergio Marchionne.
He wanted to put Jeep in with FCA’s Alfa Romeo dealers in Britain who were suffering a product shortage and it has gone from strength to strength since.
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With the addition of Renegade to the line up last year, 2015 sales exceeded those of the previous four years combined.
Zanlunghi, now heads up Jeep operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as the Fiat brand in the UK.
He said: “It was a bad time for us in the UK but Renegade has had a halo effect on the other vehicles, Cherokee and Wrangler. The is a lot more potential for the brand as well.”
Over the past few months it has been Fiat that has struggled in the UK and again Zanlunghi has come to the rescue with a change of strategy, ditching some low margin fleet and rental deals.
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By GlobalData“The brand was trying to force sales and playing in some dirty channels,” he said. “We failed to launch the 500X in the proper way in the UK, cutting and pasting what was being done in mainland Europe – it doesn’t work.
“Fiat has started to grow again, residual values are returning and we have just had our best month ever for 500X orders.”
Elsewhere in Europe, Jeep is on a roll, up 113% across the region last year with triple digit growth in four out of five countries. Spain and France were both up more than 200%.
Zanlunghi added: “All that’s holding us back is supply constraints. We are taking every Wrangler we can get. We are filtering into the markets were we get the best margins.”
