30th January 25

Today was simply taking the Renault Captur collected yesterday from Cardiff, to Renault London West.

They have now moved to, eventually, their new premises in Brentford West London. A building which once housed the History Channel as it was one of many buildings occupied by SKY TV. Who now have a huge building behind this, close to the A4 a main artery into and out of West London. This being the dual carriageway section which starts at Chiswick roundabout and heads west.

Renault Retail Group moved from their historic site on the A40 westway at Park Royal. A site that once housed the actual building of Renault cars, true.

When I started there as a used car sales manager in 2021, I was very excited to work again in West London I have great memories of working previously in that area, living in Chiswick at that time. So to be asked to take that job in the flagship store was exciting for me. I knew of the future plans to move to Brentford as that A40 site had been sold for a whopping £40m. A lot then in 2021 but looks at that now and I think it was undersold.

The one massive problem with this site and it's forthcoming move was the complete disregard for the name and history of that business. I was part of a "moving team" to plan the details of the move, which included the physical movement of everything on the sales side to the marketing needed to inform their customers which, actually, should have been the first priority.

Some of the senior managers and "directors" really should have been sacked for the absolute mess they made of this process. Let me ask you one question.

If you relocate your business and change it's name without proper marketing and information given to customers, what happens?

Firstly the site at Brentford wasn't ready in time. They had sold the site and ended up having to lease it back for a while, costing £5000 a day. So a decision was made to move to a temporary site at Staples Corner. Anyone familiar with this part of the north circular where it meets the bottom of the M1 and another main road knows it's a nightmare to navigate to and from.

The customers who were informed didn't want to go there. We had customers turning up for service appointments at the old site a few months after moving. Construction workers had to tell them where we were!

At that time if you Googled Renault London West. It said permanently closed!!!

Yes , they changed the name to Renault Staples Corner too. This killing the business. I was a lone voice for keeping the name Renault London West. For many reasons. Firstly the prestige of the name. Secondly it was the group's flagship site. And thirdly is was business suicide to change it. Why was it changed. My thoughts are that some of the regional directors were based elsewhere and they were actually resentful of that. Who knows?

Due to the small size of the Staples Corner site. It was again in their infinite wisdom to open a van centre in Hayes Middlesex. Housing a prep centre and bodyshop. But decided not to employ the drivers and transporters required for movement of cars and vans. If I explained every detail they failed to get right. You might not believe it. And now the site in Brentford is called Renault London West again not it's intended Renault Brentford. Someone took the credit for changing it back. I think I know who.

So the car was delivered to Brentford and my first impressions of the new site were good. Now it's my turn to be jealous. Would I go back??

Bus stops on the A4 are plentiful and there is one outside the site. Taking me to Hammersmith station to jump quickly on the tube and get back to Aylesbury. Very depressing after being in West London.