ALD Automotive experiences record year and focuses on drivers
Vehicle leasing company, ALD Automotive, will be profiling itself as a provider of mobility services for company car drivers in the future. This was made clear at the press meeting that was held in Paris on 11th March to announce ALD Automotive’s results for 2010. The results were good, even really good.
Gianluca Soma, CEO of ALD Automotive, spoke of a record year with a total fleet of 841,220 passenger cars and LCVs (6.5% more than in 2009) throughout 38 countries, the purchase of almost 200,000 new vehicles (25% more than in 2009) as well as record sales of 150,000 end of contract vehicles on the second hand market with an average residual loss of €400 per vehicle (compared to €1000 in 2009). ALD Automotive has almost 600,000 vehicles within Europe alone, which represents around 10% of the long term leasing market. The international division, ALD International, currently has 150 framework agreements with international clients, a figure that has steadily increased over the past few years. 32 new international contracts were signed in 2010.
Five challenges “ALD Automotive and the long term leasing sector in general are doing well and are healthy,” explains Gianluca Soma. “In contrast to the private sector, the fleet business is not so volatile. It is more steadfast. Furthermore, long term leasing is a lively, attractive formula that has proven its worth and is gaining interest.” Nevertheless Gianluca Soma believes that the leasing and fleet sector is facing some crucial challenges. Those challenges are related to technological developments in the automotive sector and the integration of the electric car, the fiscal future, society’s mobility requirements and the leasing classification with the new accounting standards which could make long term leasing an on-balance sheet issue for international customers. “I don’t believe that a potential accounting switch will have much of an impact. Customers have other reasons for opting for long term leasing than the off balance sheet issue,” he says. “In operational terms, the registration process will become more difficult with the new lease accounting standards. We are preparing ourselves for this and will offer appropriate assistance to any of our customers who are affected by it.”
Driver Management ALD Automotive believes that it can achieve additional growth of 5% this year due to the new contracts that were signed in 2010, through the further development of international activities within the BRIC countries, for example, where ALD Automotive is the only leasing partner with such a wide presence, through actively working together with vehicle manufacturers on captive activities in order to capture the SME market and through the further differentiation of the range of services on offer which will ensure a central focus on drivers. With this in mind, ALD Automotive has started up a car-sharing project in France with ALD Sharing whereby mobility solutions can be offered for short business trips made by staff who are not eligible for a company car. This therefore involves a complementary market. There is also the optimisation of the pool fleet that ALD Automotive makes available to customers. This involves 10,000 vehicles in Europe that provide short term solutions for specific requirements such as cars for staff in their trial period or cars for temporary staff. ALD Automotive also lays claim to being the only leasing company that has already developed a residual value calculation of all electric vehicles on the market and is therefore able to offer suitable financing for electric vehicles. ALD Automotive sees the electric car as an opportunity for improving the traditional range of services. “The electric car can be considered as a laboratory of future mobility behaviour and will also enable us to optimise the services that we offer for traditional vehicles,” explains Pascal Serres, Deputy CEO of ALD International. “Looking ahead to the future, the range of services available to drivers as individuals will continue to be expanded.” ALD Automotive’s management are considering individually tailored insurance, providing telematics solutions in order to improve driving styles, offering a vehicle mix which will mean that drivers can choose a more suitable vehicle for vacations or for special occasions, expanding the fuel card, etc.
Franchise By way of conclusion, Gianluca Soma announced that ALD Automotive will continue to work on expanding its geographical coverage. “We carried out an extensive expansion in 2006 and 2007 which means that we are now active in 38 countries. The financial crisis brought other priorities to the fore, such as rationalising the organisation, more efficient productivity and the development of a multi-channel remarketing process. These were all priorities that were brought to a successful conclusion and which have made an important contribution to our healthy success. The start-up of a new branch in a new country is not on the cards, but we are considering whether we can expand our international presence through a franchising system. I’m thinking here about the Middle East and South Africa.”
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