SIMI annual dinner 20th February 2014 Paul Linders - President

Good evening, Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the 61st SIMI Annual Dinner. Tonight were also celebrating our Motor Industry Awards in partnership with Castrol. I would like to extend a warm welcome to our guests here tonight and in particular to our guests from overseas and also to my family and friends. I wish to thanks Willis, Aviva, Castrol and AIB Finance and Leasing for their sponsorship tonight and we welcome their representatives. I'm delighted to see so many of our past Presidents here tonight. Sadly our distinguished past President, Jim Barton passed away last year. Jim was in fact President on two occasions, in 1963 and again in 1977/78. In the past few days we have lost another Past President Matt Fagan. Matt was President in 1986/87. Ar dheis De go raibh siad. In this business I feel I should be starting with bless me father for I have sinned or My name is Paul Linders and I am a car salesman. I hope for you all in the room, like me, that the support groups have worked and that you're still here and you're enjoying better business this year. I doubt many of us will miss 2013. I don't want to belittle the hardship of the last few years nor forget the casualties that hardship inflicted but I am very pleased and fortunate to stand here when some visible recovery has commenced in our market. At Industry gatherings these days I am hearing much more stories about recruitment

than redundancy and where we used to only speak of the lack of credit we now hear of newly established finance houses joining or even rejoining the marketplace. These are the green shoots that our economists tend to rabbit on about. I don't listen to them anymore either but I am reminded that even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day and its at least clear that recovery has commenced. It was always going to and God speed the recovery. There comes a time when one needs to put aside the wounds of the last few years and focus forward. Like me, you will have survived the last few years by doing what was necessary. A hard,very persuasive necessity. If you're anything like me you have assumed a certain mentality. A survivors mentality if you will, and while many of the lessons learned over the past years are well learned and will never be forgotten I think we need to remind ourselves that the recession will only end when we allow it to. When we decide it is over. We work in a selling Industry, an emotionally-led Industry and I truly believe that we allowed our politicians, our press, our customers and indeed ourselves be talked into the abyss that brings with it the inevitable self-fulfilling prophecy of a spending standstill. In all of our mindsets, our offices and our showrooms let's be clear the recession is over. While we havent actually yet recovered we are recovering. I think we can all feel that positivity in the room this evening. Enjoy it. I am by my nature an optimist but I'm still wary of sounding too positive. Even though we're not predicting a brilliant year for car sales this year, something unexpected has happened in the market this year; customers are back. As of today, car sales are up 32%, heavy commercials are up 41% and light commercials up 45%. Taking out all the 141 promotions and offers! and we all know how hard dealers and manufacturers have

worked to drive business to showrooms, the customer is driving the demand. Most of us were a bit taken aback by the level of demand for new cars in December and thankfully the momentum is continuing. The press are now writing about wait times for luxury cars beyond 6 or 7 months. Be clear they will ride the momentum upward as they did downward and it is good for us all. Despite mixed messages in the media, and this is a bugbear of mine we, the Motor Industry is one of the most important industries in Ireland. Of course I would say it is the most important that but its not just me being biased!. We're one of the biggest employers still employing almost 40,000 people,. Over the years of recession we have continued to invest in the young people of this country. When many other sectors just stopped training we have continued and are the single biggest employer of apprentices (over 2,000 currently in training). And this at a time when our business has been reduced to half its normal level. Add to that the fact that we contribute a fifth, a fifth of all Indirect Taxes and 13% of all Taxes. Last year the Motor Industry contributed "4.7 billion in taxes!..!I don't propose that we scrap cars outside the Dil but to me its important that people, whether at government level or just living next door, have some understanding that our business which some people seem to love to hate is close-on the single biggest Tax collector/contributor to the Exchequer of this State. Though I think we have done some great work in recent years reminding Government Ministers and senior officials of this fact I still think there is a tendency to accept an almost apologetic stance at the ground level of our Industry. I don't want to sound like yer man in the Commitments but I am a motor man and I'm proud of that fact. I generate a hell of a lot more Tax for this state than most other businesses and I employ a good number of people. On which note I could not be happier to see that as were emerging from the recession an increasing number of new businesses are starting to open. In fact in the past year alone, 310 new businesses have been formed in our Industry and add to that credit must

be given to all of you who have, despite the stormy weather, diversified and innovated to change with the times and to keep your own staff in employment. Many of you have actually expanded your businesses and taken on more staff in the last year... congratulations to you all We may be beginning to see green buds coming through, but we're way off seeing a full bloom. The Industry is still about half of normal levels. I think all of us were really disappointed that the Government didn't introduce Swappage for this year. The proposal was well researched and its benefits clear. On a positive side, the public and motoring media got it, and saw the benefits of it. So we haven't forgotten about Swappage. Well continue to carry the message to Government that it would really benefit road safety, the environment and their tax revenues and it would act as the catalyst to stimulate our Industry back toward more normal volumes of new car sales. The SIMI has fostered a very strong working relationship with Government, Government Departments and Revenue over recent years and there is huge credibility there. We will continue to attempt to use it to best influence the speed of the recovery with practical proposals. In this regard we have a number of significant projects developing with a number of Departments and Agencies; End of Life Vehicles is a key challenge for our Industry and for the country and we have already commenced the development of a new project to deliver what is required in consultation with the Department of the Environment. We also have the ongoing project on Commercial Vehicle Testing with the Road Safety Authority. In the same vein our Body Repair members are to be congratulated for their initiative in designing and embracing the highest standards in structural repair with their new voluntary CSS standard.

In addition, we received funding again this year from Skillnets, who support training for the Motor Industry for those who want to upskill. Id recommend you all avail of the discounted courses on offer. Over recent very difficult years our Industry has been fortunate to have had the continued support of our Finance House and Banking members I mentioned previously the emergence of additional credit into the market. This along with increased consumer confidence is the most important bell weather of recovery. Manufacturers have led a charge here but I am delighted to report that domestic banks have followed as well as an increasing amount of private funding houses. It is obvious that you cannot sell cars in an economy without confidence but nor can you without credit. This for me is the step change without which we would all struggle against an ageing Car Parc and a lack of indigenous used cars. The average age of a car on our roads is now 9 years old and we know that cars are far less well maintained as they age, in this regard we have seen the emergence of part-worn tyres on the market. Road Safety and the Environment would both benefit enormously if we can find ways encourage or enforce a reasonable level of required maintenance and servicing on cars, this is already being rolled out for Commercial Vehicle Fleets by the RSA. I also believe that there would be even furtherter benefits if the owners of such poor or poorly maintained older cars were given some incentive to replace them with newer safer and cleaner ones. Less immediately obvious perhaps are the other indicators of a growing/recovering economy.

Light Commercial Vehicle sales are a good barometer for the small business sector and that barometer is only now starting to show real growth in activity. These range from small, individual business owners to

the electrician or plumber who is back on his feet. Similarly the growth in the HGV market is an indicator of improved industrial and commercial activity.

The second reg plate in July will help us sell more cars. Last year was great success and a great fillip to the awful year that 2013 was for us.

Interest rates remain at an all time low. Our banks seem to be serious about tackling mortgage debt and negative equity. Currently a generation of Irish families are effectively paralysed from spending by the debt on their homes. Sorting this out will free up considerable monies for the economy.

Ourselves, we have been a motor family since my Grandfather started out in 1938. Tough for an Irish man at the time especially one aged just 19. His name was Sonny Linders and some of you will have known him, even bought cars from him. May even still owe him a few quid (I have a list I'll be going around with later). He was one of a few pioneers in the industry at the time and if we think its hard now I think it was brutally difficult back then for many reasons best not gone into here. I was lucky enough to attend the C-A-R (contact after retirement) lunch recently with Bob Prole and others where I met many that knew him (curiously none that still owed him a few quid). It's a great source of enjoyment to me to hear stories of people buying their first car off him in Smithfield. He was cut from a different cloth. As a kid we spent a lot of time together in Smithfield and I used to think his job was to pick up paper because he would never pass one without picking it up.

Smithfield has been gentrified a bit but I can tell you there was plenty of paper to be picked up. It took a while. There's a picture of him that hangs in our office reminding myself, my Dad Joe and my uncle Patrick to do the same. Personally I've been lucky enough to be supported by both Dad and Patrick along the way, especially over the last 6/7 years. I am certain neither the business nor I would have survived without that support. Nor would it without the team we are lucky enough to have developed. A lot of good and decent people lost their jobs in our business as I am sure in your own. We in Linders are very proud of opening our new premises and creating those jobs. We are only as good as our team and I am ever grateful to them for their efforts. I hope they enjoy it as much as I do. Equally to our new partner Renault for their support as well as the good people in Renault Bank. You have been a pleasure to work with. I hope our honeymoon period lasts a lifetime. I really mean that! To SIMI for affording me the honour of presidency. It has been and remains a great honour. To my team at Linders I would like to thank you for your efforts, support and loyalty. Lastly to Carina, my wife. My ongoing apologies and undying love. Thank you.