In an impressive hat trick, Ballarat Isuzu has taken out three gongs at Isuzu Australia Limited’s (IAL) Dealer of the Year Awards.
As well taking out the top honour and being named Dealer of the Year for 2022, the dealership also won the Service Dealer of the Year Award and the Sales Dealer of the Year Award.
IAL’s Dealer of the Year Award recognises outstanding achievement in customer support and all facets of a dealership’s business, including sales, service and parts, with performance of all the 35 dealerships in the Isuzu dealer network across the country assessed via the Dealer Evaluation process.
The final accolade in the 2022 Dealer of Year Awards went to another regional dealership, the Gippsland Truck Centre, which took out the Parts Dealer of the Year award.
IAL director and chief operating officer Andrew Harbison said the Ballarat Isuzu team had put in a stellar effort to take out the overall award as well as the sales and service awards.
“Dealer principal Ian Deacon and everyone in the Ballarat Isuzu team really knocked it out of the park this year,” Harbison said. “On behalf of IAL I’d like to offer our congratulations and appreciation of the determined and consistent effort of the team – thank you to each and every one of you.”
Ballarat Isuzu’s dealer principal is no stranger to the podium. Ian Deacon has previously accepted Isuzu Dealer of the Year Awards in 2020, 2018, 2017 and 2016.
“It’s truly an honour to be recognised as the Dealer of the Year again, especially given the stiff competition we’re always up against,” Deacon said.
“The team in service and sales have been working really hard, they’ve gone above and beyond. It’s been really exciting to set records for sales volume and service growth,” he said.
“It’s been a really big year for Isuzu and a great year for the dealership as well.
“We’re looking forward to 2023, we’ve got lots of trucks to deliver.”
Harbison said both Ballarat Isuzu and Gippsland Truck Centre demonstrated the drive, innovation and commitment to customer service that have allowed IAL to achieve 34 years of consecutive market leadership.
Gippsland Truck Centre is based in Bairnsdale, about 280 km east of Melbourne. Although the local population is only about 15,000 people, the township – and the dealership – is ideally placed on Victoria’s Princes Highway to service trucks traveling from Melbourne to Sydney and beyond.
Ballarat Isuzu, meanwhile, services the greater Ballarat region, and Ballarat is Victoria’s third biggest city located 120 km north-west of Melbourne.
“It’s wonderful to see such performance,” IAL IAL head of network development Ella Letiagina said. “Both teams have done incredibly well.”