ALPHERA Financial Services, has welcomed back former head Spencer Halil as the business enters the next phase of “transformational” growth. Halil, who most recently held the post of general manager, BMW Group Brands, will take up the role of Alphera director on 1 July 2015.
The announcement follows 18 months which has seen the business celebrate its most successful period to date, win two industry awards and launch an innovative new business model to help dealers benefit from the FCA market changes.
Mike Dennett, director of BMW Group Financial Services, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Spencer back to the Alphera team. As many in the industry will recall, Spencer previously headed ALPHERA Financial Services before moving to Australia to lead the BMW, MINI and Alphabet operations from Melbourne in 2011.
“Most recently, Spencer has played a significant role in implementing a first-to-market, transformational new business model for financial services across the BMW Group in the UK. Building on this knowledge, we believe Spencer will be well placed to bring together the experiences from both Australia and the UK to further grow and develop the award-winning Alphera business.”
Spencer Halil adds: “I’m excited to be back at Alphera at what is an incredibly exciting time for the organisation. A great job has been done over the past few years rolling out a new business model and providing our dealer and broker partners with significant opportunities for growth within the context of broader industry change. I look forward to working with the Alphera team to continue this journey over the coming years.”
It was last autumn (2014) while at BMW Group Financial Services that Halil was instrumental in launching a new business model for its network of 147 BMW and 143 MINI retail dealers throughout the UK.
The new customer-centric approach aimed to make significant changes to the way in which retailers are incentivised and rewarded, as well as updating the terms for the brand’s finance products.
Gone from BMW Group are the weighted finance packages, common across all manufactures’ marques in UK showrooms, which were invariably skewed in favour of higher F&I-producing dealers, and which had become part and parcel of buying a car (much to the chagrin of car buyers who had long complained about the lack of transparency in the car-buying process).
At the time Halil told Asset Finance International: “The world of retail is constantly evolving, with customers having better access to information, be it online or through peer channels, before they even enter a BMW or MINI centre.
“As a result, it is important that we tailor our business to suit our customers’ needs so that our retailer network can continue to deliver a fair and transparent service, while focusing on long-term loyalty and retention.
Andy Gruber, the current Alphera Director, has decided to leave the group after accepting a senior role with an overseas captive finance company.
