Top retailers championing women

Women make up just 20 per cent of the automotive workforce in the UK, and 10 per cent at board level, despite being 51 per cent of the population, 46 per cent of driving licence holders and 41 per cent of registered keepers of cars.
This significant gender gap in our industry has a knock-on effect on female car buyers, who look at the brands, the products, the marketing and the shopping experience, and wonder how to buy a car when no one understands or even recognises them. Women feel disenfranchised, and mistrustful of the car-buying process; survey after survey, from our own No Driver Left Behind report at Auto Trader, to the Government’s latest National Travel Attitudes Study, supports this thesis. All retailers have a huge part to play in welcoming women to their forecourts, turning the conversation in their direction and opening up the products to them. At Auto Trader, we want to celebrate the retailers who are doing their bit to close the gender gap and create a gender-neutral buying space. They are the crucial hand-holder for motorists: if retailers don’t get it right, the rest of us may as well pack up and go home. So let’s raise a glass to the following heroes who are focusing on a better female car buying experience.

“Women’s backs are up because they’ve had bad experiences buying cars, it’s a great trade, we love it, it’s a great industry, we want to influence more women to get involved”

Wink Cars is a dealership in the West Midlands co-founded by Jodie Barber and Joanna Smith. With a background in car sales, Joanna had a vision for a female owned car dealership. She persuaded friend Jodie to join her, and together they’ve built a successful business. Jodie and Joanna’s passion is infectious; it’s clear they really care about customer experience, the automotive industry, and supporting local businesses. “People don’t want to be sold to: we don’t sell, we help, give advice and confidence” says Joanna. Jodie and Joanna are a testament to the opportunities within the automotive industry for women, spotting a gap in the market for a trustworthy dealership selling low-value preloved cars. In their view “women’s backs are up because they’ve had bad experiences buying cars, it’s a great trade, we love it, it’s a great industry, we want to influence more women to get involved, women do great as part of it.”

“It’s a marathon not a sprint”

While Wink Cars is at the beginning of its journey, Ford’s largest dealer group, TrustFord, is long-established and proactively encouraging more women into the industry. Julia Greenhough, Marketing Director, highlights how the business revolves around people buying from people. TrustFord’s marketing uses stories of real people, and the recruitment website showcases its employees. As a Silver member of the Automotive 30% Club, TrustFord is committed to having a 30 per cent female leadership board by 2030. It promotes diversity and equality with initiatives such as redacting information on CVs when recruiting, working to reduce the gender pay gap and offering flexible working. Additionally, TrustFord changed its uniform, creating a more relaxed dress code and designing clothes especially for women. These small changes have a big impact, though Julia highlights “it’s a marathon not a sprint”.

“We are recruiting around transferable skills rather than motor trade experience”

Then there’s Carbase, a family-run business with seven stores in Somerset selling preloved cars and vans. Alex Jones, COO, says while the leadership team at Carbase has strong female representation (including one of their two company owners), it lacks women apprentices. To address this, Alex says, “we are recruiting around transferable skills rather than motor trade experience”. As for consumer interactions, Alex describes the focus on “the community we serve”. “Our vehicle ads are written using a bespoke process to fully call out the features and explain the benefits through specification, safety, innovation, sustainability and design rather than expecting everyone to decipher codes.” They’ve ditched the jargon and use humans rather than AI to share the benefits they know matter to drivers. Carbase has also overhauled the colours on its website: “User experience testing called out an unconscious bias in automotive websites to darker, masculine colour palettes”, explains Alex. The next round is to introduce lifestyle-based search for customers rather than make or model.

“Like the rest of the industry, JCT600 is starting from a sticky place”

Like TrustFord, JCT600 is one of the UK’s largest retailer groups. Tracey Newton, Group People Director, acknowledges like the rest of the industry, JCT600 is “starting from a sticky place” with only a small number of women in senior leadership roles. However, Tracey points to JCT600’s membership of the Automotive 30% Club as a clear signal of its commitment to inclusion and diversity. Last year JCT600 kicked off several new communities including one devoted to gender balance. It aims to bring a range of people together to share their experiences and highlight the importance of male allyship in building a more inclusive industry. In addition to internal changes, JCT600 launched a new careers website to appeal to a more diverse audience. By consciously including authentic imagery, sharing the stories of real employees, and changing the colour palette, JCT600 hopes to show you don’t need to be a traditional car enthusiast to work in automotive.

“Women in automotive struggle sometimes with lack of role models, if you can see it you can believe it”

Perrys is another multi-franchise with locations across the country. Speaking to Helen Thomas, Marketing Director, it’s clear just how important it is to celebrate the shift in attitudes we’re seeing in the industry. Helen highlights how Perrys has been championing wellbeing, encouraging open conversations around topics like the menopause and raising awareness of unconscious bias. It’s also closed the dealerships on Sundays, offers flexible working and is adapting its approach to recruitment. As Helen puts it “women in automotive struggle sometimes with lack of role models, if you can see it you can believe it” and with the appointment of Denise Millard as CEO in 2021 Perrys now has a 33 per cent female leadership board. Nicky Holdcroft, Human Resources Director, explains how the Women’s Network hopes to empower more women to join the industry by showcasing women working in traditionally male dominated roles via videos on social media.

It’s clear loads of retailers get it, and more are catching the wave: they see and hear women, they understand the subtle differences in their research and buying approaches, and they know the key to a better customer experience is often more women on board at the company.
• We’d like to hear from more of you. Are you a retailer doing great things to narrow the gender gap? Are you a customer who’s been impressed by your dealer’s approach? Get in touch with us! Email content@autotrader.co.uk with your story. • We’re excited to announce we have launched the Auto Trader Woman of the Year Award as part of our annual Retailer Awards this year to recognise the many exceptional women who work in automotive retail. • Nominations are open, and you can put forward your Woman of the Year here.