Vickar celebrates GM title — again

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This article was published 01/05/2015 (4100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last week, the Vickar family hosted a celebratory luncheon at their Vickar Community Chevrolet dealership on Regent Avenue for the top-selling General Motors sales team in Canada last year.

As reported earlier this year in this column, last year was the second time in three years Vickar Chevrolet had finished on top in sales among General Motors Canada’s nearly 500 dealers. General manager Sam Vickar reported the dealership sold close to 1,500 new vehicles last year, almost 100 units more than its next closest competitor.

On hand for the celebration was General Motors Canada’s president Stephen Carlisle on his first official visit to Winnipeg in his new role; John Roth, vice-president, sales, service and marketing; and Glenn Lemmerick, GM regional director, western region.

In introducing Carlisle, Vickar Chev president Larry Vickar said the new GM president’s visit was the first such visit by a GM president to the dealership in 11 years. “We are thrilled and honoured that Steve Carlisle, John Roth and Glenn Lemmerick are here to help us celebrate our achievement,” Vickar said.

In his remarks, Carlisle (who noted his family has roots in Gilbert Plains) expressed his admiration of the Vickar family whose history in the auto business extends back close to 70 years, beginning in Saskatchewan. “People like the Vickar family remind us about why we are in this business,” Carlisle said. “The Vickar family — as with our other dealers across Canada — strives to make a difference in their communities. The Vickar family contributions to community inspire all of us.

“I am looking forward to being back here next year to celebrate Vickar Chevrolet once again being top GM dealership in Canada.”

Carlisle also said General Motors has a number of new products coming down the pipes in the next few months. He further mentioned how important the Manitoba market — with our track record for auto sales — is to General Motors Canada.

John Roth congratulated the entire Vickar Chev sales team for their achievement. “It’s humbling to be here today,” he noted. “It takes a lot of be No. 1 in sales. It takes an attitude, a commitment on behalf of all the team members to work hard to grow the business and provide top notch service to their customers.”

He also praised Sam and Larry Vickar for their contributions personally to General Motors Canada. “Sam and Larry have served on a number of our boards and always provide us with wise advice,” he said.

Larry Vickar said the top sales award was a complete team effort that includes the back-of-the-house operations — parts, service and auto body. It is a total commitment to service that keeps customers coming back and makes Vickar Chev the dealership “where customers send their friends.”

“We have a great team here,” Vickar said. “Our managers all have many years of experience.”

He said a having a large inventory to draw from also helps boost sales. “We have over 1,000 units on hand at all times,” he said. “That allows us to offer one-stop shopping.”

“We are work together toward our common goal,” Sam Vickar said.

In addition to celebrating the dealership’s overall sales achievement for last year, the luncheon was also an opportunity to recognize sales reps and technicians for their individual achievements in 2014. Five sales reps earned entry into GM Canada’s 2014 Sales and Marketing Guild.

Top of the class was Dave Enns, who achieved Gold status for the 12th year in a row. Courtney Guest made the cut in the Silver category while Lito Dabu, Julien Lacroix, Craig Ouendag snagged Bronze.

Vickar Chev Tech Guild Grand Master winners included Pat Blank, Lyndon Nelson, Dave St. Laurent, Scott Wood, Mark Blank, Michael Bisson, Derek Ross, Daniel Jablonski, Chris Oswald, Dennis Southern, Ben Groenheide, Myles Tweed, Jessica Archer and Tony Ambrenac.

Larry Vickar said the criteria for Tech Guild Grand Master status is scoring 100 per cent in five online tests throughout the year, taking five additional online training courses and having CSI scores above a certain level.

There was one other order of business before lunch was served. That was a presentation of a cheque by Tova Vickar (Larry’s wife and partner in community philanthropy) to L’Arche Winnipeg, represented by chairman Paul Moreau, executive director Jim Lapp and L’Arche resident Dorothy who also works at L’Arche Tova Café in Transcona.

L’Arche is an international network of communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together as peers. L’Arche Winnipeg was able to open L’Arche Tova Café (where people with and without intellectual disabilities work together to serve the public) three years ago thanks largely to the generosity of Tova and Larry Vickar.

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