HARRIS MAXUS CLOSES THE YEAR ON A HIGH
HARRIS MAXUS CLOSES THE YEAR ON A HIGH
- Return of Bill Laidlaw to the business and promotion of Frank Turner announced as part of strategic restructuring.
- 46% sales growth
- Two more award wins
Harris MAXUS announced a notable 46% growth in sales, underscoring the brand’s prominent position in the motoring industry, alongside two electric vehicle award wins and two senior appointments as part of a strategic restructuring of the business.
According to Mark Barrett, Managing Director of Harris MAXUS, the sales growth is attributable to the brand’s continuous investment in innovation and design, its ever-evolving range of pure electric vehicles and the strength of its dealership network, together with a repositioning of the MAXUS brand.
“While 2023 was a great year for MAXUS, we are confident that 2024 will be better again with stratospheric sales growth forecast for the coming 12 months,” said Mark Barrett. “Our eDELIVER 7, which we premiered at the 2023 Commercial Vehicle Show, will play a pivotal role in driving our sales but we have much more in store for the market next year,” he said revealing that Harris MAXUS is gearing up for the launch of a new premium electric panel van, the eDELIVER 5 and another high-tech MPV the MAXUS MIFA 7, a little sister to the current MIFA 9 model.
Laidlaw returns
Industry expert Bill Laidlaw has returned to the Harris MAXUS team as UK Sales & Dealer Network Manager after a short hiatus from the business with Innovation Automotive (IA). With more than 30 years’ experience and an encyclopedic knowledge of the commercial automotive sector, Bill will head up Harris MAXUS’ UK sales team and dealer network.
Bill was thrilled that his first undertaking for the brand in more than ten months was to collect the WhatVan One to Watch for 2024 award presented at a gala event in London last week for MAXUS’ newest EV LCV, the eDELIVER 7.
Bill will be joined on the UK’s management team by Frank Turner who joined Harris MAXUS in 2020 and was this month promoted to Head of Operations & Aftersales UK.
Frank represented Harris MAXUS at the recent GreenFleet awards when he collected the much-coveted 2023 Vehicle of the Year award for MAXUS’ ground-breaking pure electric pick-up, the T90 EV. With a 1,000kg payload, the T90 EV is the UK’s first and only pure electric pick-up, which was recognised for its impressive range of up to 220 miles and the vehicle’s versatility within the fleet sector.
At the awards, which took place at the British Motor Museum, Bill Laidlaw was inducted into the GreenFleet EV Champions Hall of Fame, for his stalwart commitment to driving and supporting fleets make the transition to EV.
The two appointments are part of a wider restructuring of the Harris MAXUS group across both the UK and Ireland, full details of which will be announced in the new year.
“We have put in a huge amount of groundwork over the past eight years to bring us to this pivotal point in the development of the business and the positioning of the MAXUS brand,” said Mark Barrett. “With two cutting-edge EV training academies, 80 dealerships across our 7 territories and a range we are incredibly proud of, under the leadership of our CEO, Mrs Denise Harris we are finalising the restructuring of the business, which is part of our long-term growth strategy.
“We are moving into 2024 with real confidence, underpinned by the strength and growth of the MAXUS brand and are looking forward to introducing even more new products to the market over the coming months,” he said.