THE owner of a Northamptonshire dealer group has celebrated 10 years with carmaker Nissan – and said the future looked extremely bright for the brand.
Richard Sanders first joined the Nissan network in 2005 – three years after he set up his car dealer business in Kettering.
Now, a decade on, he says the brand is performing fantastically well – and that was down to the exciting new range.
Richard, owner of the Richard Sanders Group, whose Nissan dealership is based in Brunel Close, said: “It’s been a great 10 years. It’s a completely new model range now – it’s much more modern compared to a decade ago.
“We came in at the end of the Primera and Almera range. Then the Qashqai came out and really turned the brand around.
“Since then we’ve had the Juke, X-trail, Note, Pulsar and electric LEAF – it really is an exciting time to be a Nissan franchise and the future looks equally as bright.”
Richard has worked for major automotive groups for the past half century, starting out as an apprentice motor mechanic aged 17 in Norwich. He then progressed and became a branch manager at just 23.
He moved to Northamptonshire in 1981 where he continued working in the motor trade before acquiring two dealerships in 2002. Thirteen years on, he now employees 105 people across six dealership sites.
It’s a real family business too, with wife Jenny and sons Nick and Mark, all directors of the firm.
Richard added: “We are a well-established family firm – we feel a lot of people come to us because of that. They know they will get good service from us as we have that local accountability.
“We have also got long-serving staff – customers like coming back and seeing the same face.
“A lot of our employees feel part of the family. There’s total trust and respect between us. The danger is when you get too big it gets a little impersonal.”