Outgoing Peugeot LCV and fleet boss Phil Robson has pinned much of the firm’s success and 2014 growth plans on its Boxer large van becoming better established.
Speaking shortly before his move to a new role at Peugeot’s French HQ, Robson said the Boxer is 34% up so far this year for three reasons. Firstly, “the product is now well-established and early quality issues have been addressed,” he said, while he claimed Peugeot’s “strong quality ethic” with conversions, where the brand insists on a level similar to European type approval, is beginning to be understood. The third reason is that he claimed “the competition are getting weaker, some of the very reliable big van brands aren’t as reliable as they used to be and some of the newer product coming in tends to be over-engineered so prices go up and discounts come down.
“It’s given lots of customers reasons to try something else, and next year we see Boxer 20% up,” he declared.