Fiat Auto South Africa has made a quantum leap in its service provision with the opening of a state-of-the-art parts distribution centre, housed within the Automotive Distribution Park in Rosslyn, Pretoria. The ribbon cutting ceremony at this momentous occasion marks the gateway to a level of customer service and satisfaction that is aimed at rivalling the very best in the world in this regard.

Managing Director of Fiat Auto South Africa, Gorgio Gorelli said, “We have been focussing intensely on two key drivers with respect of pushing the Fiat nameplate in this country, these were method and brand. We have moved a long way from a situation wherein our operation was relatively weak with 90 dealers with poor representation to a situation where we now have 40 dedicated dealers with full representation and equal commitment to our ideologies.”

He continued, “As a result of much consistency in our marketing, we have targeted the fastest growing market segments effectively and this has reflected in industry statistics that show Fiat as the fourth youngest brand, the third brand in appealing to female customers and the first to black consumers. This was not the case a few years ago, but through multi-language advertising and our emphasis on concise component deliver, we are very proud of this staggering progress. The intense work placed into the supply chain has been a great contributing factor in Fiat becoming the third fastest growing brand in SA and has seen the delivery of customer excellence that we expect. It is for this reason that the logistics provider that was selected through tender would need to meet with key parameters in facilitating our operation, these are; speed, accuracy the capacity to deliver. UTI provided all of these prerequisites and in addition proved the most economical as well… They best understand our needs and provide a unique solution to give Fiat the advantage we need to go forward,” Gorelli concluded.
 

General Manager of Fiat Parts, Theunis Eloff, was upbeat about the progress. “With Fiat’s primary target being to deliver excellence to the customer, the very next step would be to enhance our branding network even further by entering into a service level agreement with UTI. This would require not only meeting, but managing and exceeding expectations in altering our dealer network to maximise its capacity. UTI has met with and exceeded expectation in four key elements as required by Fiat Auto SA namely, an established South African infrastructure, operational excellence, IT integration capabilities and proven automotive experience.”

Anthony Wilson, Customer Solutions Manager for UTI Automotive Division said, “UTI was started by three South Africans in 1976 and with a market capital of over 3.5 Billion and over 19,000 employees in over 300 offices in 60 countries, it has moved from being a JSE listed company onto the NASDAQ. Over the years we have developed a reputation of delivering quantifies value over the long term and this is achieved through customer service, return on investment and reducing operating costs."

In conclusion to the ceremony, Eloff stated, “Fiat South Africa’s mission is to become one of the top performing parts distribution operations of any Fiat operation globally, through world class operational performance, web based supply chain visibility and advanced integrated cross-docking. I am confident that this cements the foundation on which we will build a solid Fiat house going into the future.”