Volvo Cars have announced the launch of a joint venture with Santander Consumer (SCUK) to form a new financial services business in the UK named Volvo Car Financial Services UK (VCFSUK).
The new company is set to begin operations in early 2021 – subject to regulatory approval from the FCA – with the aim of providing wholesale funding to Volvo Cars’ UK retailer network and providing finance for customers purchasing new and used Volvo cars. This is designed to support the OEM, delivering new products and enhancing the IT systems accessed by both retailers and customers.
This joint venture is the latest development in a long standing co-operation between the two firms, with SCUK providing funding to the OEMs’ UK retailers and customers on a ‘white label’ basis for the past 10 years under the name Volvo Car Financial Services.
Kristian Elvefors, managing director of Volvo Car UK, explained: “Given the years of successful co-operation between our two companies, we can be confident that this new joint venture with SCUK will deliver benefits to both our brands and, most importantly, to our customers.
“We will be able to support our exceptional UK market growth with new, highly focused financial services products that will be robust, attractive and competitive.”
Strong leadership
Set to be a 50:50 partnership between the two shareholders, the joint venture will benefit from the expertise and back-office systems support from SCUK, while establishing an experienced team to ensure that the firm delivers on its shareholders’ expectations for continued growth in the UK.
The firm will be led by David Baddeley (pictured above) as managing director. On his new appointment, Baddeley said: “This is a great opportunity, leading a new team that brings together expertise from within SCUK and Volvo Cars, as well as other sector specialists, to create a financial services business that we believe will deliver a positive difference for our retail partners and customers.”
With extensive experience working with Volvo Cars in the UK and Ireland, Baddeley began working for the OEM in 2005 as managing director of Volvo Cars Ireland. He held this position for some seven years before moving to the UK to become the customer service director for Volvo Cars UK in 2012.
Finally, in 2016 Baddeley was appointed the operations director for Volvo Cars UK, a position he has held for the last four years.
Vik Hill, managing director of SCUK, concluded: “The Volvo white label relationship has been an enormous success for more than a decade now. This new joint venture will only strengthen the partnership between SCUK and VCUK further and ensure we deliver great products, business solutions and services to our customers and our retail partners for many years to come.”
