Wardle wins two major Volvo awards

LONDON, Ont. (May 27) — Volvo Trucks Canada president Mike O¹Connell presented Gerry and Sue Wardle with the Volvo Canadian Dealer of the Year award in a brief ceremony at the dealership yesterday.

It was in fact a repeat performance. The award was originally presented in a rather more lavish affair during the company’s annual North American dealer meeting in Orlando, Fla., at the end of February. This latest presentation was done for the benefit of dealership staff, some 30 of whom crowded into a training room to soak up the glory along with their leader.

“Sue and I picked up the award, but in no way did we do this alone,” Gerry Wardle told his employees.

“My hat is off to each and every one of you,” said O¹Connell. “But the bad news is that you¹ve set a new benchmark.”

Gerry¹s Truck Centre actually won two awards for 1998 performance. The second was for parts sales after besting Volvo’s 25 other Canadian dealers by meeting 118% of their objective and taking 126% of their market share target.

Also recognized by Volvo was Barry Searcy, who runs Volvo Trucks Manitoba. He won in the Volvo engine sales category, selling 223 Volvo-powered trucks in 1998. That represents 80% of all the trucks he sold, and 203% of his objective, in just his second year as a Volvo dealer.

Surgenor Truck Sales in Ottawa took the truck sales award, having achieved 166% of its objective and a solid 24% market share.

The “most improved dealer” award went to Bertrand Bouchard and Gilles Ouellet of Volvo Lac St-Jean in Quebec.

Gerry’s Truck Centre sold some 210 new trucks in 1998 and 80 used vehicles. Wardle said he’ll be in the 300-plus range this year.