Fiat Chrysler on a charge

Newly formed Fiat Chrysler Group has taken over its 'first home' in Port Melbourne. At 11,000sqm, the headquarters is owned by the company and offers approximately three times the space of its previous quarters, shared with Iveco in Dandenong Victoria.

"We'll be able to operate in a much more efficient and economical way," said spokesperson for the group, Lenore Fletcher. "We've got room for future growth."

Apart from room for offices and workstations, a showroom and multimedia area including bleachers to resemble the average American sports field is under construction. The group's 'Americaness', after all, is a unique selling point according to spokespersons.

"We're grateful for the investment that's been made: we'll be able to get cars in and out [quicker]; we'll be able to run extensive training programs."

Directors, sales executives and product planners are nearby the press fleet pick-up area and parts storage.

"The whole building is about communication and being customer focussed.

"The Fiat Chrysler Group is about putting our dealer network first; we're putting our internal staff first: we're not about making sure we're not worrying about the bureaucracy that goes along with running a car business. It's about making it better and every bit more efficient as we can.

"This is the people side of the business: the people trying to create things like better pricing and finance offers, and bringing better products," said Rob Moorcroft, Director for After Sales and Service.

"It all adds up to quite a lot of money... It's a big investment but it's an easy one on paper for me to see the benefit in this head office and further into regional offices, like WA, New South Wales and Queensland," said Mr Moorcroft.

"Two years ago when we were kicked out of Daimler we were among [its] dealerships but now we've got a standalone presence in nearly every state... We were kicked out of Daimler; we ended up moving in with our sister or cousin Iveco. We were the poor cousin, with signage out the back and a condemned room with asbestos (and possums on the desks, reiterated Ms Fletcher)."

When new managing director Clyde Campbell arrived he said: "We've got to get out of here and we identified the easiest way to do that was to grow out of there. Around 18 months ago we had 50 employees and [year ending] by June we've ended 70 per cent up; we've now got 76 of our own employees and with the parts receivers crew we're up to around 100."

The new standalone image is the story, he says. "We've invested for the future; we've put the money down now because this is where we want to grow. We've future-proofed ourselves with the warehouse; we have three times the space we used to so we're prepared for business and we're ready to keep doing more volume."

Spokespersons wouldn't confirm exact costs. "We're still waiting on furniture," admitted Ms Fletcher, even including a board table. Meanwhile, the parts side of the business is well on its way to better productivity.

"We've always sourced parts from other warehouses, which has restricted us: minimum room, [stock] to the roof; hard to pick... So with this success has come a warehouse designed to fix those problems."

Currently the group is carrying 20,000 lines [part types] with just over 11 million in stock, and a view to "around 15-16 million."

With the Fiat on board, the facility will quickly need to accommodate at least 35,000 lines of parts. The major difference in the Port Melbourne facility is that: "We own it and we can run it to our own rules: dealers can pick out parts and we can give them out whenever they want them. There's no restrictions."

The launch of the new 300 and 300C models this week was particularly important for the group because last time it met media was in a different capacity.

"Then we were [trading as] Chrysler Australia; now we're the Fiat Chrysler Group Australia and we have a whole range of brands that we're covering off: nine in total," said company CEO Clyde Campbell.

"We say nine because we've got some performance brands, including acquisition from the ATECO group and the family models that are performing.

"The question we're often asked is why: why have we taken on the Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands? Clearly there's an opportunity for us. We think we're pretty good at our job and we'll continue to be good at it, and add value to those brands.

"We'll make them more valuable in this market than they've been previously; we think we'll get more opportunities than what the previous operators had. [And] The Fiat and Alfa brands will help the Chrysler brands' network," suggested Mr Campbell.

"By putting all the brands together we'll be stronger than having the parts running in separation."

Brands under the Fiat Chrysler Group: Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, performance arm SRT, Fiat and Fiat Professional (covering commercial vehicles), Abarth (performance), Alfa Romeo and parts outfit Mopar.

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