Larry Dominique, the Chairman and CEO of PSA North America, will discuss the company’s plans for setting up shop with the Peugeot brand in four Canadian provinces when he attends the CADA Summit in February.
As the point person setting up a new retail network across North America, he’s already received dozens of inquiries from dealers, and he expects he’ll hear from more in Canada who are interested in opening a Peugeot franchise.
Dominique will also share some details about what a greenfield OEM and dealership operation will look like — one focused on delivering an entirely new customer and owner experience. He said the company will launch in Canada with operations in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and B.C.
The company’s specific timing is still being determined, but he said they are looking to launch in their first market in North America in 2023. “I’m looking to hopefully speed up some of the deployment, but basically we’re talking about sometime in 2023,” said Dominique in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
Dominique said Groupe PSA’s global expansion move started in 2016 with the company’s “Push to Plan” initiative led by Global CEO Carlos Tavares. “There was a decision made not too long after we got involved that the Citroen brand was going to go to India, and we made the decision that Peugeot would come to North America. So that was the genesis for getting it started,” said Dominique.
Groupe PSA is a global OEM that produces Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall automobiles and the global mobility service brand Free2Move.
Dominique said he’s worked in the industry for 36 years, and has seen challenges over the past decade with things like compressed dealer margins, OEM stair-step programs, varying levels of customer satisfaction with the traditional car-buying process, a more digital economy, and new disruptors entering the market on the retail and used car side of the business.
He said the company is entering a North American market already offering more than 40 brands and 330 different models for sale to consumers. “It’s kind of hard to bring a brand into that noise and make a difference,” said Dominique. “If we’re going to try to be successful, we’ve got to find a way to innovate. We need to innovate on the retail side and on the service side.”
Dominique said that drive to innovate is something that motivates him every day. “We are an industry that’s hard to innovate. We’ve looked at it from the standpoint of ‘how can we as a greenfield think out of the box.’ We actually joke inside my organization that you’re not allowed to use the word ‘traditional.’”
He described the industry like a giant black hole, with the forces of gravity always wanting to push things back to the way they’ve always been done. “We’re saying we need to fight against that. How can we, in everything we’re doing from the moment we engage a customer through the car buying process or the ownership process to repurchase — how can we be different?”
At least part of being different, is returning to a model where dealerships make money again selling vehicles. “I want to get back to making money selling the cars, and not being dependent upon all the backend to survive,” said Dominique.
He’s not a fan of current OEM stair-step programs, for example. “There’s a sad commentary in our industry: Once you turn on the juice, it’s hard to shut it off. Right?” Dominique said many OEMs have set up their networks to foster interbrand competition and other issues that lead to a bad customer experience.
While he said Peugeot does not intend to sell directly to consumers, they are going to carefully choose their retail partners. After a recent speech at a J.D. Power event, Dominique said he was approached by many dealers wanting a crack at a Peugeot franchise and he has received hundreds of emails. He said he expects the same reaction after his talk at the CADA Summit on February 12 in Toronto.
“So what I tell dealers is that we are going to be looking for partners for us who understand the need that retail has to change, that customer satisfaction comes first, and with customer satisfaction will come profitability,” he said.
Dominique said the company is still determining how many franchises they will need across North America to support the Peugeot brand.
Seats are running out for the CADA Summit, so dealers who want to hear from Dominique and the other all-star cast of speakers should register now at: www.cada.ca.
TD Auto Finance is the exclusive sponsor of the CADA Summit, and has been since the event’s inception.
