After 41 years as Berkshire Fiesta Centres, in early 2017 the business re-branded itself as BFC Motor Group to better promote the range of its products and services. Today, the business has retail outlets in Reading and Goring, DrivePay, a dedicated finance business and service and MOT capabilities. Certainly, the business still retails many Fiesta’s, but alongside these are the full range of Fords and Vauxhall models and a diverse range of other cars including Tesla's. Partnering with the RAC Inspection team for over 20 years then latterly with the AA Inspections team has certainly proved to be a wise decision. All cars come with their “Famous” FREE MOT For Life & 30 Day Exchange Plan.
The business has grown rapidly into one of the largest retailers of used cars in the area. At the helm of the business is Gavin Leach. By his own admission he is very comfortable with the notion of change; if something isn’t working, or if there is an opportunity to do something better and improve the business’ reputation, then he is more than happy to test the market and then to make the change. One of those areas has been finance.
In 2008 Gavin realised that the banks had stopped lending and many of his customers were being turned down for car finance. Gavin realised there was a gap in the market and made the decision to lend his own money on his own cars. He called it DrivePay. Gavin soon realised that this helped the sales grow but also that customers that needed a car to get to work were being helped where previously they were turned down for finance before. Many customers could not get a job without having a car. The recession continued and soon Gavin had to borrow more money to be able to continue the growing trend of lending. Customers from all walks of life were able to get finance after a short interview to check suitability and affordability. Gavin was always cautious but fair If he thought the customer was being unrealistic wanting a BMW or a Mercedes he would say so!
The DrivePay business flourished and sales continued to increase but what was really interesting was the repeat business. 90% of customers that had been given a loan on Drivepay found themselves being accepted by prime lenders having rebuilt their credit with DrivePay over a period of between 12 & 18 months. This allowed them to sell even more cars but freed up money to lend again.
So what’s new? Well having successfully sold cars for over 41 years it’s come to Gavin’s attention that they can now do exactly the same by adding small and large vans to their offering. After a 12 month pilot with a local well known courier firm Gavin has decided to offer quality” A Grade” commercial vehicles on the same basis all with their Famous no quibble 30 day exchange plan, AA Inspection & FREE MOT For Life. With their find a van service they now source and supply all makes of vans as well as electric cars. By 2018 Gavin had caught the Tesla bug after owning numerous model's. He applied to become an "EV Approved" garage under the Retail Motor Industry Federation. The staff went through a rigorous training exercise over many months, approval was finally granted on 17th of June 2019. It turned out that BFC were one of the very first independent dealership's to be approved. If you need any motoring advice give BFC Motor Group a call on 0118 467 6866 or 01491 681075.
