Any respectable new broom should sweep clean, but in a multi-million pound industry dramatic changes can prove costly, so the secret is to stay within fundamental parameters; take cost out, while increasing profit per product sale.

And in this context, Chris Thorneycroft-Smith finds himself at the head of a lean Iveco UK which sold more trucks and vans last year than at any time in its 30 year history, and made a profit.

Thus, it can be argued, that the changeover at the helm from Giuseppe Franchi has gone remarkably well, however when the new boss took control on New Years Day as managing director of Iveco Ltd and Seddon Atkinson Ltd, there was little time for hogmanay celebrations…

Chris Throneycroft-Smith immediately found himself firmly in front of the footlights at Iveco's annual trade press "State of the Nation" market stats presentation (9 January) and the 350 "guest" annual dealer conference (25/26 January).

"In retrospect, these were two excellent platforms for me to explain my plan; where we want to go, and how we"re going to get there. I want to put the best people into the network to put us ahead of the competition and to help, Iveco has its dealer panels, overseen by the national dealer council," explains Chris.

"Dealer panels cover Daily vans, Trucks, Customer service (involving Graham Phillip), IT, Used trucks and Finance (with Sandy Phillip on board)." The six elected members of the dealer council include Sandy McDonald of North East Truck & Van, headquartered at Billingham. They meet five times a year and the underlying strategy is improving customer service. Our Watford head office looks on our dealers as customers and they in turn sell fleet management packages. Aftersales doesn"t exist… it"s an afterthought. Fundamentally, we must find ways of adding value to bring in more business since it is an undeniable fact that the industry"s customer base is getting smaller and at a quickening pace the further you go up the weight range."

"We are geared to evolution, but not with dramatic changes, more a logical progression to bring more focus on the business of selling Iveco's products.  On our finance side we can react to market trends in the popularity of contract hire, rental or leasing and in pure product we see the market polarising in particular weight sectors such as the 18 tonne two axle rigid, while coming up strongly on the horizon, is the 26 tonner in 6x2 mode with a steering rear axle. But our entire product range is affected by the move from Euro 3 to Euro 4 engines in October with immediate concern centred on customers being able to purchase Euro 3 powered vehicles before we stop building at the end of June. Normally production is on a 12 week cycle so the pull forward purchase decision requires to made now," insists Chris Thorneycroft-Smith.

"The other great talking point of 2006 is undoubtedly the move to digital tachographs and here, Iveco has stolen the lead on the opposition by having committed all our dealers from 1 January to order new vehicles off the line complete with digitachs. The reasoning was quite simple. If a customer wishes to return to using analogue tachographs, it"s £250 to change. Conversely, if he ordered analogue and found a change to digi was essential, the change in this direction is a cool £1,250. That"s a perfect example of Iveco's "added value thinking" - another new phrase for the trade dictionary."

When it comes to dealer meeting customer to discuss product and finance, all Iveco staff now have specifications and finance options at their fingertips, literally.

Handheld computers hold the calculators for finance packages and product availability and Iveco finds this facility is being appreciated not only by their dealers, but by their customers too thanks to speedy response costing on acquiring a new or used vehicle.

Explains Chris, "Stuart Webster, the managing director of Iveco Financial Services has fed in rates for repair and maintenance, lease and flat management contract hire that include tyre and screen replacement, even down to buy back cost, and we can do this because our residual values are improving against the market. After all, Iveco was the first to put in "return conditions" when offering a buy back facility. That was seven years ago and our industry "first" has now become the truck trade bible."

"With our used values increasing, we now confidently know what the truck will be worth and we know when it is coming back so that we can keep it in the family."

"Last year we sold 2,800 used Iveco vehicles and this year we plan to sell over 3,000, all commensurate with keeping low stocks. We"ve managed the flow and with a good mix of product we are comfortable on the used truck scene. How many of our competitors can say that?"

Iveco has a defined field force backing up the dealer network with each one of six regions having a district manager and a fleet district manager heading the customer service team. As it happens, Scotland (Iveco's region 1) is the exception, with Richard Voight holding down the twin posts of district and fleet manager.

In Iveco parlance, "national fleet" covers five main headings: Vans, medium weight trucks, heavy trucks, big fleets and municipals, so starting with the lowest gross weight in the Iveco line-up Chris Thorneycroft-Smith is delighted to enthuse over the performance of the Daily van range:

"We"re flying these days. At the end of 2005 we are No 3 at 3.5 tonnes and No 1 at over 3.5t as well as winning the Fleet Van of the Year accolade."

"And there are market trends which will be beneficial to us. Take the minibus for instance, with 15 people onboard you now need a four tonne chassis and the 6.5 tonne sector is growing between 20 and 30% per annun which makes the Daily at this weight a good town distribution vehicle."

"We call it "the alternative 7.5 tonner", but amazingly only 30% of the vehicles in the over 3.5 tonne class are panel vans, so it is just as well that we can offer a multiplicity of chassis cab options under the Daily umbrella."

"Then there is our EuroCargo which for 19 years was leader of the 7.5 tonner sector. Okay, we lost top spot to DAF last year and although two big fleet deals did it, we are still unhappy and concerned, but we will attack the 2006 market with our broader spread of product over a wider customer base which we have to find and that"s why we have redefined our dealer network as a field force."

"At the moment the trend seems to be that customers are either going into the contract hire sector or going out of business."

"Moving up to the 18 tonne market, there are now so many different specs being demanded in the market place that we are finding our 19 tonne Stralis can help out in many instances and at 26 tonnes the Stralis 6x2 with steering rear axle is coming on stronger and stronger, as is our new 8x4 Trakker."

"Iveco has never been in a better position with product and our flagship Stralis 6x2 is becoming much more popular. It was the fastest growing tractor unit in 2005 with a 90% increase and 2006 will see yet another sales rise."

"Overall, Iveco hit its objective in 2005. Perhaps we lost market percentage points in various weight sectors, but our requirements in market share are superseded by profitability and to underline this point I can say that all our dealers are profitable. I am sure that we have the only totally independent and profitable dealer network out there."

"Not only that, Iveco in the UK is the only solus truck and van supplier so we have no distractions and just as well, for with all the legislation coming through over the next years we need profit."

"Globally, Iveco still invests 5% of its turnover in research and development so we will always have the best of product available."

"But how are we going to address the question of increased sales this year? To build the business, we are looking to sell in short numbers. We realise customers don"t put all their eggs in one basket these days and in addition, we will have the benefit of Stralis now starting to appear in the used truck market."

"Now that we"re into the second half of the first decade already, we realise that support packages must be in place to back up our vehicles since in the 21st century, electronics is king. We now require to have technicians, not mechanics, who can diagnose and repair trucks and vans following information received from telematics where development is such that in the not too distant future, staff in Turin will be able to start a vehicle at the roadside somewhere in the north of Britain. At the moment, we can actually achieve this in our workshops."

"We have recently commenced a novel apprentice scheme aiming to retain and develop technicians of the future where they are likely to find the traditional "service bay" looking more like an operating theatre."

"And on the parts side, Iveco in the UK has probably the best response time in the market with a 9pm cut off at dealer level for VOR parts required next morning."

So Chris Thorneycroft-Smith is pleased that everything is in place for Iveco's positive moves into the 2006 market place and apparently the Watford HQ is being given a free hand by Turin.

"Our Italian HQ provides us with a list of objectives and they pretty well leave us to it. Apart from the top sales team from Turin attending our recent national conference and awards, we are left to run our own show," explains Chris.

"And why not? We have increased penetration in the van sector and with EuroCargo we want to be back at the head of the 7.5 tonne league, however in the immediate future, we will be concentrating more on sales conquests in a wider customer base and more importantly working to ensure greater customer satisfaction."

"This year, 2006, is our first real year with a full complement of products. Our field force is also in position and we have re-written the dictionary of trade terms to suit the gradual change in commercial vehicle buying habits which has increased in momentum as the years and the various Euro 3, Euro 4 numerical designations unfold."