HONDA is gearing up for a renewed attack on the fleet market with a series of management changes which come into effect on September 1. Among them is the appointment of Nicholas Phillips as manager of national corporate sales in place of David Strangeway who moves to regional sales (South).

Phillips is promoted from his role as regional operations manager covering the North. Before joining Honda two years ago, he spent seven years with the Lex Retail Group including two years as fleet sales manager for Lex Volvo Mayfair and two years as general manager for Lex Honda in Hemel Hempstead.

Phillips sees his first objective as getting closer to Honda (UK) existing corporate customers and determining the levels of service they expect from a manufacturer and their supplying dealers. He also plans to examine future customer requests of models and variants.

Phillips will report to Martin Saunders, head of sales operations, with Mark Davies heading up marketing, Paul Ormond heading up press and public relations and Ewan Ramsey heading up a customer management section (formerly aftersales) and seeking to ensure parts availability, pricing, sales and profitability. All four departmental chiefs report directly to Ken Keir, director and general manager of Honda's car division.