Goodyear Dunlop Reshuffles Management For Strategic Customer Focus

Goodyear Dunlop Tyres Ltd has announced a number of new appointments designed to strengthen the company’s customer focused management team. Significantly, all but one of these appointments is as a result of internal promotions. The company has also formed a new Customer Strategy team. This team will be led by Mark Davison, who joins the company from Nestle on 8 May. Davison’s role as Customer Strategy Director will be to lead the development and delivery of long-term customer strategies across all business units. (Consumer, Truck, Motorcycle and Off-the-Road).

Mark Brickhill, Managing Director, stated: “This is a real opportunity for Goodyear Dunlop to take a lead in the tyre industry by developing customer and channel strategies and enhance our external focus. We aim to take the industry lead in the development of customer-led category visions that define how we go to market.”

This will also allow our Goodyear and Dunlop brand team, led by Mark Dilks, to focus more on consumer marketing, strengthening our brand and product portfolio.

Neil Burrows, currently Marketing Director, is promoted to the role of Retail Director. Neil joined the company in 2003 bringing senior marketing management experience from his roles at Nissan and Audi. In his new role, Neil will be responsible for the development of the HiQ network.

“We have exciting plans for the HiQ network with the aim of setting the highest standards in the sector. The increased investment in HiQ will require a real marketing focus to raise the profile and deliver the new proposition to consumers and I am delighted that Neil, with his invaluable experience in premium automotive retail marketing, is to lead our retail team. Neil has already been actively involved in driving our HiQ national standards programme and led the launch our franchise programme,” added Mark Brickhill.

Chris Kisby, (currently Retail Director), is appointed Director, Consumer Tyres. With 27 years company experience, Chris has held a number of key positions within Goodyear Dunlop such as Sales and Marketing Director, Associate Brands Director, Brand Director Europe and Managing Director for Russia, Belarus and Central Asia. Chris will lead the Consumer (car tyre) business team, replacing Paul Wilde who is leaving the organisation to pursue a new career opportunity.

“I thank Paul for four years of excellent strategic business work in the UK market and wish him well for the future. Chris Kisby has unparalleled experience in the UK consumer tyre market and is perfectly qualified to build on our successful work in this area” added Brickhill.

Chris Kisby’s dealer sales team will be led by Trevor Burfield. Burfield, currently responsible for Vehicle Main Agent sales, will be responsible for all dealer sales. Trevor brings his management experience in Original Equipment and Consumer Marketing to this role.

Phil Stanton is appointed as Sales Manager, Truck Tyres, reporting to Robin Sharpe, Director, Truck. This role combines the strengths of Stanton’s background in driving dealer sales and his significant experience in both Truck UK and European Regional strategic roles. Phil will be a great asset to our Truck team” stated Robin.

Pete Harper, currently Sales Manager, Truck Tyres will report to Mark Davison in leading the new Goodyear Sales Academy. “Pete will work with our Customer Strategy and Training teams to develop the tools that will ensure we achieve consistent excellence across our sales teams. We are committed to success through our ‘First With People’ strategy and I’m delighted that we have an experienced sales leader in Pete driving this new Academy,” added Mark Brickhill.

“Since joining Goodyear Dunlop last year I have been impressed with the level of professionalism and experience across the organisation. These appointments are positive career moves for experienced managers that will allow us to deploy their strengths in new areas of the organisation. The talent in the organisation is a major competitive advantage for Goodyear Dunlop and these changes, coupled with the appointment of Mark Davison, will allow us to move forward by sharing best practices and successes between business units. We aim to be First by delivering consistent, industry leading and customer focused strategies across all of our key business areas” concluded Mark Brickhill.