Ford chief hails Sandicliffe for its contribution over 60 years

The Managing Director of Ford of Britain has hailed the contribution of Sandicliffe to the continued success of the car giant. Mark Ovenden was in Loughborough to formally open our multi-million pound dealership redevelopment and used his trip to praise our long association with the Ford brand. We have been new and used Ford specialists for 60 years and sell the full Ford range from our sites across the East Midlands. We have recently invested in a major refurbishment of our Loughborough site, and Mr Ovenden fulfilled a longstanding commitment to officially open this state of the art Ford showroom. Mr Ovenden said: “The wider Sandicliffe group have had the Ford franchise for 60 years and they have been serial winners of the Chairman’s Award – given for outstanding customer care. While it’s fantastic to have great facilities like this one, unless you’ve got the people and the processes then it’s not going to work – and that’s exactly what Sandicliffe have. “It was a longstanding personal commitment that when the redevelopment was finished I’d be delighted to come and open it,” he added. The Ford chief took over as head of Ford in Britain in 2011 after running the company’s Russian operation. As well as being longstanding friends with the family who own Sandicliffe, Mr Ovenden has a local connection having studied at the University of Nottingham. He also began his career with Ford here in the Midlands, 28 years ago. Mr Ovenden welcomed the long relationship with Sandicliffe.

He added: “One of the strengths of the Ford franchise is that we have a number of very long serving dealers which have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the manufacturer. It’s a bit like a marriage in some ways – you don’t stay together unless you’re each getting something out of it.” And, the executive praised our commitment to providing exceptional service to Ford customers across the region. “Despite the tough times we have dealers like Sandicliffe investing in the future of the brand. “We want people like the Sandicliffe group to invest in these fantastic facilities but the quid pro quo is that we at Ford are investing in the product. If we don’t, we’ll end up having beautiful showrooms with nothing in them – and that won’t work either,” he explained. Reg Tutt, Managing Director of Sandicliffe, the new and used car experts, said: “We’re always delighted to welcome Mark to Sandicliffe and it’s great that he can be here to formally open our fantastic Loughborough showroom. “We’ve been selling new Fords for 60 years and so it’s great to see that Ford are as committed to us and our East Midlands customers as we are to them,” he added.