BMW wants to focus on small business sector

I POPPED down the road to Bracknell yesterday to the smoked-glass towers of BMW HQ.

I had an appointment with Stephen Chater. Stephen, to give him his full handle, is BMW’s corporate operations manager. To you and me, that means he looks after the business sales and fleet sales of BMW cars. It was the former I was particularly interested in, especially following the news that BMW was welcoming small businesses back to to its dealerships (read the story BMW opens its doors to small businessness in our news section).

Previously you had to have a minimum of 10 cars before a BMW business dealer would speak to you about contract hire, enabling your swift exit through the smart gin palace doors of a BMW dealer.

But you’ll find a different attitude in place now. If you’re a small business owner, and you want a BMW on contract hire – or personal contract hire – a BMW dealer will now sort you out.

Stephen confirmed this change of attitude. 

Unlike the slightly forbidding BMW building façade, Stephen is warm and welcoming. He’s been at BMW 20 years now – cue a few reminisces and, as I suspected, we had crossed paths before when I was editing What Car? – but took over as head of BMW business sales at the beginning of the year.

“Yes, we’re re-focusing on the small business sector which we have ignored for too long,” confirmed Stephen. “We’re currently launching the BMW MINI Business Partnership to our dealers before rolling it out to small businesses in September. Although we’ll still continue to operate with the large leasing companies, our dealers will launch this partnership to small businesses.

“It’s important that we can offer small businesses competitive funding, with additional benefits – such as free Bluetooth, for example. We also want our business dealers to support the vehicle needs of small businesses – so small business owners can get on with their own trade rather than worrying about a car service, or a replacement car in the event of an accident, and so on. We expect our dealers to provide a real service to small businesses.” 

It sounds very encouraging. I increasingly believe the best place to get advice on your car is either from local business oriented dealers who understand the business-to-business relationship of small  businesses. Or from BVRLA-accredited car leasing brokers who are very switched onto the business motoring requirements of a small business. Again, it’s the interpersonal relationship that these local car leasing providers are so good at.

Finally, I must admit I felt a bit of an intruder with new Audi A6 at the BMW HQ. It’s very corporate. I remember from the times I used to come down when I was at What Car? that all staff cars in the car park had to parked with noses pointing outwards. 

Little has changed! As you can see by the sign in the picture, other car makes – my Audi included – are herded into the centre. There’s also a car wash on the exit to keep the BMW cars all shiny!