Sept. 7, 2010 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
On September 23, we will host a Make-A-Wish child in the plant. His name is Zechariah and he is 4 years old. He will have with him his parents Daniel and Kristina and his two brothers Payton, 8, and Caden, 6. The plan is to have a stop during his tour in each department and we are looking for donations for Zechariah and decorations to help make his day special. Zechariah’s wish of getting a swimming pool was recently granted and the family could use pool related items. He also likes John Deere tractors, cars, trucks – most anything with wheels. You can contact Mike Bridgins at 2112 or Wanda Richard at 2308 and drop any donations off at the Benefits office.
The Women’s Committee would like to thank everyone who helped run, participated in, or sponsored holes for the golf tournament. Over $1300 was raised for the Blue Rose home for disabled adults.
Here is the monthly sales report from Marketing Director Andrew Reytnjes:
A combination of factors caused a drop in sales/share.
Limited Retail Inventory
We can't sell what we do not have in stock. At the beginning of the month Retail stock translated to an average of 1 cargo van for every dealer, Passenger vans were limited to fewer than 300 and cutaways were also less than one per dealer.
To get an idea of our Retail inventory situation checkout Chevrolet.com or GMC.com and search for a Cargo or Passenger van and see how far you have to drive to find one to look at or test drive in your desired color, wheelbase and engine configuration.
Did Ford have a large number of deliveries to Fleet customers?
This is a real possibility. Unfortunately there is a month lag time until registration data is available. Since a couple of large Fleet deliveries to key customers can really move the needle in terms of share when there are only 2 players in the segment this can be an important factor. Every point of share gained means a gain of a single share point and a loss of another share point to the loser (net 2 points)
Diesel Availability
GMFCO likely will get a bounce as our recently released 2010i model diesels move through the Upfit process and are ultimately delivered. As you can see from the attached charts GM wins when it comes to Fleet cutaway business but there is a lag time as the ambulances, shuttle buses etc get their bodies upfit. A large block of these produced together under the existing inventory and pre-sold production levels can have a temporary delivery effect.
So What Are We Doing?
I thought you may be interested in a few of the activities that have been worked over the last month.
Incentives
While I cannot presently comment on some yet to be announced incentives we have made a conscious effort to be extremely (but responsibly) competitive. We have been working very closely with our Divisional Incentive teams to ensure that Express and Savana are included in planning. We have also made an effort to work with our ~500 Business Central Dealers who control about 80% of deliveries to ensure that excellent dealer programs are in place. We have incorporated feedback from our National Dealer Council and of course kept a close eye on what Ford is doing. Just yesterday we announced an incentive for Mobility Upfits. Last year Ford delivered 20,000 compared to our 250 mobility vehicles so we see this as a good opportunity. We are also encouraging dealers to equip and display vehicles for the small business person closer to the front of the dealership.
Marketing Events
We have launched our Marketing Promotional events and last month managed to meet close to 2,000 construction workers, contractors and tradesmen for lunch in Texas. We had excellent coordination with our dealer partners and Upfitters and are hopeful that this grassroots marketing directly with the customer will lead to greater consideration and sales. We participated at the Brickyard 400 with Chevrolet, sponsored and provided vans for the Chicago Breast cancer walk and have more events planned for next month that I will report to you then.
Product News
CNG Vans are now available to order and we are hoping to capture conquest sales with this new offering.
Marketing Materials
Be sure to take a look at our Savana and Express 2011MY Retail Catalogs and our Chevrolet and GMC Commercial Catalogs. We have expanded the number of pages and have included vocational appropriate photography and included cargo models to appeal to sole-trader small businesses. We have also created some additional sales materials to help push the benefits we have with our exclusive diesel and some obvious benefits we have over Transit-Connect.
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