RENAULT is hoping to double its pan-European fleet business this year by targeting the continent's top 100 companies and responding to their needs.

The French manufacturer has reorganised and expanded its pan-European fleet operation to deal with an ever growing number of pan-European tenders.

The new department is led by director Jacques Lemonnier and now encompasses five distinct divisions covering the full range of fleet business.

These include a short term rental and buy-back remarketing division; a major accounts division responsible for multinational account management, responding to tenders, and relationships with leasing companies; an electric vehicle division; Carevia, a used car remarketing division; and a e-commerce business-to-business division.

On the major account side, Renault now has 15 pan-European agreements, including Danone, accounting for 10,000 sales a year. None of the deals are solus, however, as Robert Boscari, Renault's director of major accounts within the pan-European fleet division, explained.

'On a multinational level a solus arrangement is not realistic,' he said. 'It's difficult enough to implement a multibadge deal, so we find ourselves as one of two, three or four suppliers.'

One of the responsibilities of Renault's pan-European fleet division is to spread best practice throughout Renault's operations, and to work closely with Renault Credit International and Overlease.

'One major function we have here is expertise in fleet business, so we assist all our national fleet departments in their organisation and processes,' said Francois Pouchet, a stalwart of Renault's pan-European fleet operation and now in charge of its e-commerce division. (April 2000)