MT Interview: Steve Bridge, MD eStar Truck & Van

It came as a surprise for many when Mercedes-Benz Vans UK managing director Steve Bridge jumped ship in February to head up eStar Truck & Van as MD. Bridge had been with Mercedes-Benz Vans UK for 20 years. On his watch Mercedes-Benz Vans UK’s sales volumes rose from 25,000 vehicles a year to a peak of 44,000 units in 2019.

Bridge was hired by transport industry entrepreneur Sid Sadique who bought most of the assets of Roanza Truck & Van in 2020, after the former franchisee fell into administration. eStar has its HQ in Warrington and outlets in Liverpool, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Deeside. The company has a turnover of circa £140m.

Supply shortages

Like everyone else in the business Bridge is keeping close tabs on how the current shortage of semi-conductors is impacting van sales in terms of supply. The issue is well chronicled. When the pandemic hit in the first quarter of 2020, manufacturers responded by cutting back production and cancelling supplies of chips. But the market recovered quicker than expected and OEMs had to fight to get supplies, facing tough competition from other sectors. The motor business accounts for just 15% of worldwide supplies so OEMs had little leverage. They had to queue.

“It’s tricky at the moment because we have lots of customer ordering with vehicles delayed through shortage of certain componentry. Semiconductors is one of them and certain other products are also in short supply. So, customers have to wait at the moment for the product, which is far from ideal.”

Bridge makes it clear that he is now speaking from the perspective of a dealer rather than OEM.

“I can only obviously speak at the moment from the retailer side. The reality is that we’ve got a couple of hundred vehicles that are held up. Mercedes-Benz chose not to terminate its production facilities, or to stall its production facilities. It continued to build but then hold vehicles until such time that those missing components were available.”

Online development

eStar Truck & Van is committed to the development of online sales channels, in recognition of the increasing popularity of new methods of vehicle acquisition. Reflecting the changing landscape of the industry, it has also announced plans to establish an eEducation centre that will showcase the fully electric range of Mercedes-Benz vans and FUSO eCanter trucks, alongside zero-emission products based on low-entry Mercedes-Benz Econic chassis and built by Electra Commercial Vehicles, another of Sid Sadique’s businesses.

“Electrification and digitalisation will both be hugely significant for the UK commercial vehicle market going forward, so the fact that we’ll be able to bring them to life quickly, and in an easy-to-understand format, will allow us to provide customers with all-encompassing solutions,” said Bridge. So, how will eStar Truck and Van stand out from the crowd?

“Do we intend to do things differently? Yes, of course. That will be more about concentrating on how we can differentiate ourselves from the competition. The sort of five-year plan for this business is to evolve into being the best version of what we can possibly be, considering what the customer wants. And again, the only way to do that is to ask them.

“It is exciting to come into a business like this. It is probably the highlight of my career, coming back to the north west to apply some of the trade that I have learnt within the brand and hopefully enable everybody within this business to make a difference.”

While at Mercedes-Benz vans Bridge oversaw the introduction of Procenters with a new set of higher standards for dealers to achieve, including extended opening hours for customers and meeting new standards on staff training and qualifications, from bodybuilding to workshop, fleet sales out of hours servicing and offering a wide range of demonstrator and display vehicles. He also introduced an approved used van programme to the network to cater for the broad spectrum of customers.

Reducing downtime

At eStar, customer service and reducing downtime continue to occupy central place in Bridge’s thinking. Reduced downtime counts for repeat custom from demanding fleet and business customers. If a car is off the road because of failure or servicing, this is an inconvenience. For fleets and business customers it has a direct impact on the bottom line and also damages the relationship with customers.

“The customer base is, is massive in this industry. You know, we’re dealing with a florist or a dry cleaner in one breath. And then a heavy haulage company and anything in between. So, if you ordered your food online, especially through the pandemic, you expect it to be delivered.”

For Bridge, employing the right people is critically important for the future of eStar. The company has a number of vacancies, particularly for service technicians for 24-hour workshops.

“There’s a famous phrase from Ray Kroc [Kroc bought McDonald’s in 1961 and is credited with the global expansion of the company as CEO] that you know, you are only as good as the staff you hire.

“So, what you have to do is you have to hire them correctly, train them correctly and nurture them.”

Management team

eStar has been bolstering its management team, most recently appointing Richard Waterworth as sales director, joining from Isuzu Truck UK, where he was most recently head of sales for the brand. The former group financial controller from Moneysupermarket Group, Chris Bevan, is now its finance director, and Chris Taylor, former group service director at Rygor, is now operations director at eStar.

I ask Bridge how he is dealing with the current supply shortages of used vans, which is driving up values in the wholesale market, putting pressure on the retail side.

“At the moment, it is more about being able to get the right product for the client and let’s be fair, you know, everything is relative. If we have to buy products and it’s at a higher price then clearly, we have to pass that price on.

“Products are in very, very, short supply, because we said, you know, new vehicles are in short supply. Yeah, this plus pressure on the used market and of course, people keep hold of their vehicles longer if the waiting for their new vehicle to arrive.  This obviously shrinks the used vehicle market as well.

“Right now, we’ve got 80 to 90, used vans for sale and probably 15 or 20 used trucks.”

He cites the example of Sprinter van with refrigeration, which are difficult to find because of demand for shifting vaccines around the country which require temperature-controlled conditions.

“That’s just one example. I mean you start to get into the parcel sector. Long wheel, base sprinters as an example. They’re like hen’s teeth,” he said.

eStar aims to establish an eEducation centre where fully electric, zero-emission Mercedes-Benz eVito and eSprinter vans, and FUSO eCanter trucks, could be showcased alongside Electra products based on low-entry Mercedes-Benz Econic chassis.

“The circumstances are not right yet to do that. When we are ready, we will do that, and it will be around the education on infrastructure. Everybody can read about range and charging times and such like, but it’s more about people’s understanding of charging infrastructure,” said Bridge.

He gives the example of one company that thought it had sorted its charging out for a fleet of 10 vans but subsequently discovered it had opted for fast instead of rapid chargers, which were not up to the task in terms of time to charge and downtime.

Jumping ship

So, what is it like switching from the OEM side to retailing? Is there much of a culture shift dealing with an entrepreneur compared to management at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart.

“So instead of sitting at the manufacturing seat, I sit at the retailer, which adds a different dimension. I’m able to understand more about what customers’ demands and needs are.

“The difference purely and simply is that I have less bureaucracy here. I’m the MD of the business. I report to the chairman, and he allows me to get on with it,” said Bridge.

And getting on with it means ensuring everyone in the company makes a difference. It all comes back to delivering the highest quality of customer service.

“If you do that and get that good internal service quality, right, you’ll deliver amazing levels of service, whether that’s in the restaurant, trade, hotel trade or automotive trade, the science is the same.”

Bridge cites the example of The Ritz London. “It’s a most expensive hotel in London. And the reason it’s the most expensive hotel is because the service they give is absolutely phenomenal from front of house to back of house. You pay for that service, of course you do. But they’re able to charge for that because they deliver amazing service quality.”