Shrewsbury retain MINI dealer of the Year award

Staff at Rybrook MINI Shrewsbury are full of smiles after being voted MINI Dealer of the Year at a glittering awards ceremony.

The Featherbed Lane-based dealership beat off 141 others from across the UK to clinch the award after leading the way throughout 2010.

The team also won the PR Guru of the Year award following a number of "MINI Adventure" stunts aimed at promoting the marque across Shropshire.

The garage's MINI brand manager, Ian Lockett, described as "Mr MINI" at the awards event at the MINI HQ plant in Oxford, said this was "absolutely superb news" for the dealership and its staff.

"We are very proud," he said. "It's just amazing. We had the best consistent performance of 2010."

All 142 MINI franchise dealerships' figures are monitored throughout the year, and Rybrook MINI Shrewsbury were one of ten dealerships nominated by head office for the top award. Ian attended the awards ceremony along with group managing director Simon Sheldon and financial director Mike Buffey.

Ian said the dealership had achieved 94.5 per cent for customer satisfaction. He added: "In December we sent in the final accounts. We didn't know we'd been nominated but we did know that we were about .6 ahead of everyone else after we led the way throughout the year."

To reward the staff, representatives from MINI UK will be travelling to Shropshire to take them all out for a special meal. And Ian's special bonus is a four day trip to Lapland.

"We also got PR Guru on the night," he said. "We were promoting MINI in the Shropshire and Telford area last year. We had three service mobiles, I did a "Herbie" motor car and I put a MINI in the River Severn. At the Shrewsbury Flower Show we got the Royal Artillery to jump over our cars. We called these our Little MINI Adventures."

For its customers the dealership also ran "Splash & Dash" where anyone who had bought a car from them could go and have it washed and vacuumed for free on a Saturday from 9am to 1pm.

The main UK MINI Dealer of the Year Award takes in selling both new and used cars, said Ian. "It's called a 'balanced performance'. With sales it's over achievement in sales in new car sales targets and used car sales targets."

The judges also looked at repeat business, where customers go back to Rybrook MINI two or three years later for another car.

"Another big area is customer satisfaction," said Ian, adding that in 2011 the team were planning to work towards becoming a 5 Star MINI Dealership.

Ian, who joined Rybrook MINI three years ago said: "I want to thank all the staff. The guys work really really hard, and it's not just been for one year, it's been for the last three years. They've put an awful lot in for me. We're very proud. And it's great for our customers as well. I heard one member of staff telling a customer that we had been voted Dealer of the Year, and she said "I'm not surprised!"