Honour, glory to Jaguar Land Rover The Glen

To back up winning the number one spot, The Glen also scooped up a handful of victories in different categories, as well as first and second runner up in others. The Glen is part of the independently owned, Southern Motor Holdings Group, with various retailers across different brands in Gauteng.

Jaguar Land Rover The Glen won the Sales Top Achiever Award as well as the Marketing Retailer of the Year Award and was first runner-up for the Customer Service Retailer of the Year and second runner-up for the Sales Retailer of the Year Award.

“We are immensely proud of the awards and other accolades achieved by this amazing team at Jaguar Land Rover The Glen. We finished in a stronger first place than last year with more awards in different categories behind our name,” says Filipe Carvalhal, Dealer Principal at Jaguar Land Rover The Glen.

“We are a young, energetic management team that is driven through sharing the same vision and all working towards the same goals, and we give glory to God for this achievement. Every employee at The Glen played a pivotal role in making this dream a reality. Yes, we take cognisance of what the requirements for the awards are with a retailer scorecard that allows us to steer our business on the right path across all departments,” he tells Dealerfloor.

Talking about business conditions, Filipe says that during this time of abnormal stock availability, communication with customers is key to their success. “We take customers along on the journey by keeping them posted about where their vehicles are in the pipeline, and we inform them about any developments on a regular basis.

“We are moving away from a volume-centric approach to a more customer-styled focus, Modern Luxury experience. The waiting time frame for vehicles has been affected from external global challenges and this has afforded us the opportunity to realign this new brand strategy with a fresh focal point. With this comes a closer contact and an in-depth communication process with clients in their respective journeys.

Filipe says although both brands have SUV models, the customer in need of an all-round vehicle with strong off-road capabilities for the family generally opts to purchase ranges in the Land Rover product line-up, while on the Jaguar side, the SUVs fulfil a sportier and a more, urban approach to its target audience. When it comes to sportiness, however, and to catch the eye, Jaguars like the F-Type are hugely popular with tremendous performance.

“On the Land Rover side, the new Defender bridged a gap between hard-core off-road capabilities and comfort and luxury. Especially the 110 models in the Defender range are the forerunners in terms of sales.

“The uptake of full electric vehicles (EVs) is gaining momentum in South Africa, and this is leading to an all-electric future with the hybrid models showing what can be done. Electric vehicles are undoubtably the future of motoring,” he says. Jaguar has proven this with the award-winning – World Car of the Year award in 2019 with the Jaguar I Pace.

Reimagination of Jaguar as an all-electric luxury brand from 2025 to ‘realise its unique potential’, and this remains a big focal point.

Filipe took over as Dealer Principal at Jaguar Land Rover The Glen during 2019 and was the Sales Manager at the dealership since 2015. His career in the motor trade started in 2001 and lasted to 2013, amongst others, at Volkswagen before he left the motor trade for a year in 2014 and returning to The Glen in 2015.