From eight hours a week to senior leadership: Beth Weir’s 12-year Pike+Bambridge journey

What route did you take to get to your current role?

I moved from North Devon up to Edinburgh to study Sport and Exercise Science at university. While I was studying, I was introduced to Pike+Bambridge (P+B) through a mutual connection.

P+B had recently launched and supplied a Land Rover to an Edinburgh wine merchant I’d worked with back in Devon. At the handover, P+B mentioned they were looking for someone to support with business administration. An introductory meeting was set up, I started working there eight hours a week as a student, and I’m still here more than a decade later.

How has your role progressed over your 12 years at P+B?

I started in administration, managing order forms and vehicle delivery. From there, I moved into the Sport division, I was given a book of clients to work with and I successfully grew that opportunity into an account management position.

After my degree, I joined full time as a Senior Account Manager, then became Relationship Manager Team Lead, and for the past year I’ve been Sales and Operations Manager.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I spend a lot of time working with our relationship managers and client experience team, helping resolve any issues ahead of time to ensure we deliver the best solutions for clients. Because we cover business and personal customers, we could be helping customers with leasing a Lamborghini right through to purchasing vans. I work closely with our supply chain and funders to make that happen smoothly.

Currently I’m also exploring how we can deploy software and AI to reduce manual work and enable our amazing team to spend more time with customers and suppliers. 

I’m usually in the office four days a week, with one from home. I‘m trying to be out seeing customers more because face to face time is key, I also like to attend business events where possible.

What’s kept you at Pike+Bambridge?

The culture of balancing a high level of challenge with strong support has really suited me. We’re encouraged to learn, develop and grow which has kept me here and kept me on my toes!

Twelve years in, the business is reaching a level of organisational maturity. It’s still hectic, like any other fast scaling business, but we’re in a strong rhythm and the team works well together. We’re also fortunate to have amazing leadership in our CEO Piers Bambridge and a very supportive board.

 Why automotive?

To be honest I don’t have a huge passion for cars. What I’m passionate about is delivering a great client experience. Our model is consultative – we meet with the customer to understand their needs and do the leg work to find the right vehicle for them. I enjoy helping busy people free up their time to focus on what matters to them – I find that hugely rewarding.

Do you feel that automotive is attractive to women?

Automotive has provided a great career journey for me and I’ve never felt held back because I’m female. I work in a predominantly female team, around 70% of our senior team is female, and most of our client services and retail team are also women.

I’m proud to be part of a company that is strongly female-led, we’re a driven team who want to do well in a traditionally male dominated sector. Our client base, especially in professional services, is also quite strongly female, and representation is so important – particularly when women still sometimes have a poor experience in our sector.

What are the best things about working in this industry?

Many of our clients aren’t petrol heads but they do want a nice car. It’s an emotional product that people need, and there can be a lot of perceived risk and hassle around it. I enjoy guiding people through the process and I love the industry relationships I’ve built up over the last decade too. The relationships in this sector are really strong – whether that’s with suppliers, dealers or other brokers.

What advice would you give women looking to get into automotive?

Find a team and culture that supports and challenges you in equal measure – that balance is key.