NISSAN has secured a unique fleet supply contract for a national renewable energy franchise company.

It’s a major coup for Nissan as it’s a deal that other motor manufacturers rejected as not being ‘fleet business’.

The not-for-profit organisation, Puragen, has selected the newly-launched Nissan NV400, the NV200 and the Primastar for its 72 franchise owners across the UK.

Jeremy Malindine, head of Puragen, says that despite its well-established corporate backing, the newly-launched organisation faced a seemingly impossible task in getting any motor manufacturers it approached to provide fleet terms.

‘What we needed was recognition that, although our franchise owners were new-start businesses, they would benefit from the strength of the group from day one,’ explained Malindine.

‘But we soon discovered the problem that faces every new, national franchise operation made up of privately-owned franchises with no trading history. Motor manufacturers tend to see each franchise owner as a single entity, rather than recognising the aggregate value of the entire franchise network.

‘It was a hard journey finding a vehicle buying arrangement for our franchisees and Nissan appeared to be the only manufacturer with the innovation and imagination to recognise the unique demands of franchised fleet supply.’

‘It’s great that we were able to deliver for Puragen, especially since they had been turned away by rivals’

Nissan and the UK’s largest Nissan dealer group, West Way Nissan, were central in organising a range of contract hire agreements from a pool of suppliers, offering three-year, fully-maintained deals for Puragen franchise owners.

Malindine adds: ‘We selected Nissan’s light commercial vehicles as they are more economical than most of the other vans we considered and also have better emission levels; an important factor to align with our credentials as an eco-business.’

‘The silver vans are all liveried by the West Way Nissan dealerships, helping to support the brand image we want our representatives to portray. And with the amount of time our drivers will be using the vehicles, a high standard of comfort is essential. Features such as air conditioning are not always standard in this type of vehicle, which is why the Nissan options were the obvious choice.’

Nissan’s fleet sales director, Barry Beeston, said: ‘It’s great that we were able to deliver for Puragen, especially since they had been turned away by rivals.

‘Working in partnership with a renewable energy business also fits well with our wider environmental ethos and the innovation we are bringing to the electric vehicle market.’

Puragen expects its franchisees to acquire at least 100 vehicles within the next 12 months.