STEVE Catlin is swapping the Griffin badge of Vauxhall for a new role at Volkswagen Group where he has been appointed head of group fleet services at Volkswagen Group UK.

The former retail sales director at Vauxhall, Steve Catlin, is taking over from Vincent Kinner who retired from the business at the end of March.

Catlin will report to Alistair Shields, group commercial director for the Volkswagen Group. Commenting on the appointment, Shields said:

“Group fleet services was set up around two years ago and under Vincent’s ownership, a new structure and Group fleet contact centre have been established. The work he has done puts us in a strong position to provide a high level of service to fleet customers and to maximise efficiency across the five Group brands – Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, SEAT and Škoda.

“I look forward to Steve joining the team, building on this foundation and driving the Group Fleet function forward in its key task of supporting the individual brands’ ambitious fleet plans.”

In 2014, the Volkswagen Group broke the half a million sales barrier for the first time. Over 540,000 Group vehicles were sold, of which more than 50%  were fleet sales.

Catlin takes up his new position on 13 July.  He is an experience automotive professional having spent most of his career with Vauxhall, undertaking a variety of roles in different areas of the business, including sales, fleet and marketing.