New car marketNewsCV ShownewsUsed caranalysisNews RecruitmentdigestDealerprofileShowroom"We don't do anything particularly unique, it's doing the simple thing well"Stephen Snow

Dealer profile Snows Group"We've been through fantastic times with all those manufacturers, but sometimes it's difficult too. It's through the difficult times that you need their support more than ever and because we've had great relation-ships, the manufacturers we represent have always supported us."Steering through recessions and block exemption changes has been made easier because Snow can quite simply "pick up the telephone".He said: "You work through it together. It's not an us versus them culture. If we've got an issue we'll talk to them about it and together we'll come out with a course of positive action we both want to take."Manufacturers don't always get it right, but they only make decisions based upon the information they have at the time. "We're not frightened to say what we think, but we work with them."Snow believes manufacturers have developed a more realistic approach towards the cost of running a dealer-ship following the recession in 2008, with a greater focus on helping dealerships be profitable.ContinuesThe recessionSnow said: "We had to restructure our business. It meant closing a couple of sites, selling our body repair business and reviewing the head count. "We renegotiated our funding lines with the bank and we put our shoulder to the wheel."Back to basics is one of the group's favourite terms and Snows doesn't like to over complicate the retail process.Snow said: "Sometimes it's too easy to be diverted into some fancy scheme or different way of doing things, but quite often you just need to keep it simple."Snows wants to keep it simple, but it also wants to give customers an experience in that process to help keep them coming back.Keep it localSnows Group focuses on selling locally. Servicing is where dealers across the UK make the majority of their money and building a strong local customer base is essential in building the foundations for the long-term.Snow said: "I could sell a car to someone in Manchester, "We're not frightened to say what we think"Snows has been a Volvo franchise for more than 30 years