Overview
General Manager: Ford/Mahindra (Automotive) Jobs in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng, South Africa at Carter
Title: General Manager: Ford/Mahindra (Automotive)
Company: Carter
Location: Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng, South Africa
JOB DESCRIPTION: General Manager
Business Overview
HeyCarter Dealerships is an automotive dealership group based in Bronkhorstspruit with a diverse brand portfolio inclusive of Chery, Tata, Volkswagen, Ford, Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, GWM, Geely, MG and Mahindra.
As we drive exponential growth, we are seeking a General Manager for our Ford/Mahindra Dealership. This role is for a “Builder”: a high-level operator capable of setting up and driving dealership operations, sales and aftersales together with ensuring profitability, and excellent customer experience.
Role Description
The General Manager is an operator who will be responsible for your dealership performance, profitability, and brand alignment. Reporting to the Franchise Executive, you will oversee your dealership, ensuring that your targets met and adheres to the group’s business blueprint while exceeding OEM-specific requirements.
This role requires a results-driven leader to provide day-to-day dealership sales and aftersales management, , financial oversight, and long-term brand strategy.
Minimum Qualifications & Experience
- Experience: Minimum 10 years in the automotive industry, with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role (Sales Manager/General Manager/DP)
- Education: Tertiary qualification in Business, Commerce, or Retail Automotive Management
- Technical: Proficiency in DMS, CRM, and Business Intelligence (BI) tools for high-level data analysis.
Critical Skills Synopsis
- Brand Management: Adhering to Brand requirements as per OEM needs
- Strategic Commercial Acumen: Ability to build high-level business cases and forecasts to support capital allocation.
- General Management: Mentoring teams into high-performance operators
- Performance Management: Driving Performance from a KPI and OEM perspective. Ability to assess and streamline processes to achieve business objectives.
Key Areas of Responsibility
High-Level Activity
1. Portfolio Oversight
Align Dealership goals with HeyCarter Dealerships long-term growth roadmap.
2. Group Financial Performance
Aggregate P&L responsibility for the dealership; driving economies of scale and optimizing group-wide working capital.
3. Staff Coaching
Performance management; ensuring sales and aftersales pipelines are robust and culture-aligned.
4. Dealership Performance Management
Performance management of Dealership floor; ensuring operational process and systems are robust and
effective, together with ensuring a premium dealership experience aligned to HeyCarter Dealerships Blueprint of exceptional customer experience.
5. OEM
Relationship Management
Serving as the primary point of contact for OEM National Sales/Service Managers to ensure brand compliance and incentive optimization.
6. Operational Governance
Enforcing group-wide structure, ethical conduct, and standardised reporting metrics.
7. Stock & Inventory Management
Oversee dealership stock turn and ageing policy for both new and used vehicles, ensuring vehicles are market-ready within 24 hours of arrival. Enforce remedial action plans for ageing stock and maintain inventory levels aligned to the dealership’s sales velocity and OEM allocation targets. Approve reconditioning spend and prevent cost escalation through direct oversight of vehicle preparation processes.
8. Digital & Lead Management
Ensure full CRM adoption and compliance across the sales team, driving data-led decision-making on lead conversion, pipeline management, and campaign performance. Enforce speed-to-lead standards and monitor digital channel performance. Collaborate with marketing to drive dealership visibility and generate qualified leads. Monitor and maintain strong online reputation scores across review platforms.
9. Showroom Standards
Maintain showroom standards that consistently reflect the HeyCarter Dealerships brand, ensuring the floor is customer-ready at all times. Drive continuous improvement in CSI, SSI, and NPS performance.
Performance Targets :
- Profitability: Achieve aggregate 1st and 2nd Gross targets across all assigned Dealerships whilst ensuring the group meets it’s overall profitability targets
- Market Share: Ensure dealership sales targets set are achieved or exceeded
- OEM Scorecards: Ensure the dealership meets and exceeds OEM scorecard requirements
- Customer Loyalty: Maintain CSI & SSI scores as per OEM requirements
- Aftersales Absorption: Ensure all dealerships maintain a high service-to-expense absorption ratio through tech-driven efficiency.