CONGRATULATIONS to Craig Cooke who has been appointed managing director of leasing broker Britannia Car Finance.
Craig says the appointment formalises a structure that the business had been shaping for the last 18 months, along with co-directors Ben Chatterton and Ivan Whalen.
For the last two years we’ve had consultants looking at our business and understanding where we wanted to take it. So the brokerage has changed immensely within the last four years, from being based around the directors to a more structured approach. I was tasked with getting the structure right from marketing, sales and admin. It’s been ongoing to get the business where it is today.
Craig says the Cheshire-based leasing broker now has 14 members of staff and with the current rate of growth will need three more employees before the end of the year.
Training is integral, he says, so staff know they are being allowed to develop and can see a clear path ahead. “We’re also keen to mentor our staff – everyone goes through a bad patch at some point – and I think our approach has led to a high retention rate among the Britannia staff.”
During the past year the business has pivoted away from personal leasing and more to business contract hire, with Craig saying the split last year was 70/30 in favour of BCH.
We launched our new website and CRM this time last year as we moved away from the CALAS platform. Each customer is allocated their own dedicated account manager to ensure they receive the best service and advice, and this drives a healthy referral and renewal channel to complement our new business initiatives.
With four funders on board (three of them partners of Broker News) – Santander, Lex Autolease, Arval and Novuna Vehicle Solutions – Britannia Car Finance expects to move at least 1600 units in 2024.
Broker News Newsletter 30 April 2024
Catch up on the latest leasing broker news in the 30 April 2024 Broker News newsletter
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Ralph Morton is the leading journalist in the leasing broker sector and editor of Broker News, the website which provides information and news for BVRLA-registered leasing brokers. He also writes extensively on the fleet and leasing market in both the UK and Europe.
