Winnipeg dealerships score prestigious awards

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This article was published 26/07/2018 (2869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three Winnipeg car dealerships won national awards from General Motors Canada, recognizing the dealers as some of the best in the country last year.

Jim Gauthier Chevrolet and Gauthier Cadillac, Buick and GMC both took home a President’s Club Award from General Motors executives on Wednesday. Of the 174 General Motors dealers spread between Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, 18 got the top prize. Murray Chevrolet was the only other winner from Manitoba.

“What we do is look at all the different aspects of the dealership — like sales, service, customer satisfaction, parts,” said GMC’s western region sales manager Nicolas Longpré. “We look at all that, then we score all the different departments and the dealers with the most combined points, win.”

This is the second year in a row Gauthier Cadillac, Buick and GMC won the award.

“The dealership gets the award, but the dealership is all the people that are employed in it,” said Jason Cross, vice-president and partner at Gauthier Cadillac.

Longpré likened the prize to a hockey team winning the Stanley Cup.

“If a team wants to win the Stanley Cup, they need all the different players — even the backup goalie has a role to play if a team wants to win — it’s the same thing here,” he said. “All the staff, everyone had a role to play.”

Among GMC dealers in Canada, the two Gauthier dealerships are among the biggest.

Last year, Gauthier sales people sold approximately 3,500 vehicles between the two dealerships.

Nationally, there are approximately 450 GMC dealers, of which 50 are receiving the award. “That represents the best 10 or 11 per cent of dealers in Canada,” Longpré said.

“It’s not always easy,” owner Jim Gauthier said.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca