15 | Managing Director of the Year Awards 2022 Northside Truck & Van Ltd is one of the UK’s leading Mercedes-Benz and Maxus suppliers. It has accomplished this title under the leadership of its Managing director, Keith Sims, who has poured an abundance of expertise, care, and passion into the development of the business. Across eight locations in the UK, Northside Truck & Van Ltd supply a plethora of services that contribute to the sale, service, and repair of the full Mercedes-Benz and Maxus commercial vehicle range. Indeed, its sales and services are tailored to cover every customer’s requirements, henceforth, the company carries the largest volume of stock vehicles across all UK based Mercedes Benz and Maxus dealerships. Northside Truck & Van Ltd prides itself on its devotion to client-centricity – it is a trustworthy and transparent service that aims to serve you. Consequently, the company has sold vehicles and its services to tens of thousands of companies, from brands recognised worldwide to one-person start-ups, as regardless of size it endeavours to treat all its customers equally. Much of this stems from the company’s devotion to its core values, namely providing an unmatched service that circles around maintaining the best products and services possible. Further, Northside Truck & Van Ltd aims to keep its customers businesses running with minimal downtime. Such values have not changed since the company’s inception – instead, they have only strengthened. Keith Sims, the company’s Managing Director, began his journey with Northside Truck & Van Ltd in 2019. Initially, Sims took on the role of Truck Sales Director, in which he was then tasked with looking after the business as a whole. Northside Truck & Van Ltd was, at this time, in need of re-structuring. Recognising that the business was not best placed for the dynamics required for the future, Sims set to work, implementing a range of measures to rectify the issue. His main course of action came in the form of boosting the morale of the sales team. Once this took place, Northside Truck & Van Dealership MD of the Year (Northern England): Keith Sims Truck & Van Ltd saw an increase in truck sales, achieving its target within the first year. However, Sims’ work was not complete. After a successful year as Truck Director, Sims was promoted to the role of Managing Director. This took place during a particularly turbulent period – the height of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet Sims saw this time as beneficial, in hindsight calling it, ‘the medicine Northside needed.’ In addition, this time was utilised by Sims in order to forge a greater relationship with the newly formed team of directors, ensuring all staff understood his vision and passion for the group going forwards. In turn, the company further developed the business with an expansion to eight new depots and the acquisition of a building on the Sandtoft Industrial Estate, which would become the company’s used vehicle preparation and PDI centre. In January 2021, the site would also become home to Northside Truck & Van Ltd’s Maxus franchise. This new area of Northside Truck & Van Ltd grew exponentially, becoming the fastest growing and largest Maxus franchise in the UK, securing an order for 750 electric vehicles from a large UK company in its first six months of operation. Subsequently, after 18 months as Managing Director, Sims pushed the company to accomplish its best financial year on record in 2021. Of course, such success would have been impossible without Sims’ approach to business. He states, ‘One very important feature of my role and the business is you have to enjoy it and still get the buzz of coming to work, the moment that stops you fail.’ It is with this firmly in mind that Sims has designed the internal structure of Northside Truck & Van Ltd to thrive upon diversity, community, and trust. As Sims comments, ‘we have a good sense of community which involves winning together when times are good & sticking together when times are tough.’ 2022 is set to be a busy year for the company. Northside Truck & Van Ltd hopes to continue to strengthen its current products and services as well as involve itself with any further business opportunities that it comes across. For example, the company has recently introduced a new service, Fleet24Seven, that specialises in a one stop shop for vehicle fleet management. Additionally, the company wants to help the electric vehicle infrastructure in the UK through consultations and the supplying of electric charging equipment. Contact: Keith Sims Company: Northside Truck & Van Ltd Web Address: www.northside.co.uk Mar22556
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