INTERVIEW
‘I’m eager enough to try to make it better, and I’m clever enough – I hope’ Brian Gilda has been selling Fords for nearly 40 years but he’s never seen a year like 2020, reports James Batchelor.
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’ve been through a few financial world crises from beginning to end, and I didn’t think I would see anything like this,’ he tells Car Dealer on the publication of the firm’s 2020 full-year results. Gilda is chairman of Peoples Ford – Europe’s largest independent Ford dealer – and a founder-director of the Retail Automotive Alliance, which is the UK’s leading independent automotive retail purchasing group. Moreover, he’s a director of the Ford UK Dealer Council and vice-chairman of the Ford European Dealer Council, advising some 2,250 dealers across 22 European markets. He is also chairman of the Ford European Product Working Group. So, when someone of Gilda’s standing says he’s never seen a year like 2020, you can’t help but take notice. ‘The problem with the pandemic was there were people who were plainly making decisions, and making horrible decisions, which were affecting the lives of my staff, of their relatives and friends, and everybody in the community – that was quite scary.’ Speaking of his firm’s performance following the first lockdown, Gilda says: ‘The real story is that we set ourselves up to come out of lockdown to be in the best position to take advantage. ‘Our mental capacity [during lockdown] was good, and our aftersales activity was looking after the blue-light services. So we didn’t have to fill it [the business] with oil, crank it up and give it a good kick – we were ready to go. ‘When the spike came, we had the right stock and motivated people – bang and off we went.’ And what a bang it was. Last year, the firm turned in its strongest financial performance ever. Profit before tax soared to £7.98m in the year ended August 31, 2021 – up a whopping 165 per cent on the year before. Twelve months ago, the business – which has six showrooms in the UK: three in central Scotland and another three in the north-west of England – reported pre-tax profit had slumped to just over £3m, which was down from the £4.6m that it made the year before. Turnover for the period ended August 31 this year totalled £289.5m – up by almost 20 per cent on the previous year. It’s the strongest financial performance the business has recorded in its 38-year history. Peoples took £880,000 in government furlough cash, and Gilda described the furlough 06 | CarDealerMag.co.uk
Now, if God was going to have an enema, Bathgate is probably where it would be. Brian Gilda
Click here to watch the interview with Peoples Ford boss Brian Gilda
