CFAO Intermotors makes GMSA awardees list

General Motors Africa has honoured the region’s top-performing and longest-serving dealers of the Chevrolet and Isuzu brands including CFAO Intermotors Nigeria at an inaugural annual awards evening held in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial and economic capital.

Attended by GM dealers from across sub-Saharan Africa, the awards were presented by Ian Nicholls, the GM South Africa (GMSA) vice president of operations, and Brian Olson, vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing.

Olson said: “It gives us great pleasure to be able to honour our best dealers from various sub-Saharan Africa markets, without whom we would not be able to grow our market share and brand presence. Their dedication to creating customers for life deserves the highest recognition.”

During the night of glitz and razzmatazz, the top market share award was presented to Zimbabwe’s Autoworld, who achieved a 14.5 percent market share in 2013, with the Chevrolet Trailblazer leading sales. In 2014, Chevrolet and Isuzu are the most popular brands in Zimbabwe, with September year-to-date market share at 19.5 percent.

Top sales volume award was presented to Angola’s Vauco, with the Chevrolet N300 and Spark being their most popular vehicles. Olson stated, “These are important achievements when one considers that we operate in markets where used grey import vehicles form 70-90 percent of sales.”

He said that many of these vehicles have not been engineered or tested for operation in the harsh conditions found on the African continent. This exposes consumers to questionable reliability and costly repairs.

Olson noted that all GM model range are designed to meet market-specific requirements and operate safely in these tough environments. “This allows us to provide a 3year/100,000 km warranty for added peace of mind for our customers,” he said.

Various long service awards were also presented to a total of 12 dealers that have existed under the 20 years of doing business. These include Geant (Gabon), Mike Appel and Gatto (Malawi) and Entreposto (Mozambique).

Dealership that came under 15 years of service are Alucar (Cape Verde), Arno (DRC), National Motor Corporation (Ethiopia), Edelec (Madagascar),Silcar (Senegal) and Eldomotors (Mauritius).Under the 10 years of service award are Vauco (Angola), Cactus Motors (Liberia), CFAO Intermotors (Nigeria).

“We thank each and every one of our dealers for their long-standing service to General Motors. The continued strength behind our dealer network ensures that we deliver an outstanding customer experience in every market in which we operate,” concludes Olson.

MIKE OCHONMA