In a country where car ownership is seen as status as well as a means of great convenience, vehicle dealerships in Singapore are a common business in nearly every district. Not only do family cars from Japan or South Korea roam the streets, but supercars and continental vehicles also make a common appearance. With this in mind, dealerships that bring such vehicles over to Singapore and shops which provide maintenance of such vehicles are both needed to satisfy the demand of the population and ensure that the vehicles continue to run smoothly. In 2019, 4 Continental car brands breached the Top 11 in car brand sales in Singapore, proof of their growing popularity here in recent times.
A name one might be familiar with the scene here would have heard of Euro Performance Asia Pte Ltd, a company set up initially as a sole proprietor by Mr. Anson Lee back in 2013 as a dealership which trades and sells cars, before becoming a private limited company in 2017. Their products include Continental cars and supercars, including products from Mercedes-Benz, Lamborghini, and Ferrari. In addition to sales and trading, Euro Performance also provides grooming and accessories shops as part of the services provided.
Mr. Anson Lee started as a vehicle salesman nearly ten to eleven years ago, while also undergoing progressive learning into the role of a purchaser. What attracted him about cars are both their utility and design, with sleek cars being one of his preferred models, and being a salesman allowed him to learn and work with the objects of his passion. With the experience gained from his training and work, Mr. Lee eventually decided to move out of being a salesman and into a businessman with his own company. Deciding to nurture his passion for cars, he also wanted to be his own boss while maximizing profits from each sale for himself.
Starting up a dealership wasn’t easy for Mr. Lee and the company. Both workshops and cars require a heavy initial capital to start up, and quick turnover was needed through quick sales, with a car sitting in the store each day causing a constant drain in the finances. Sourcing for vehicles also proved tricky, for there rarely was a constant supply of cars in the market, and finding a reliable supplier required more than the average salesman to establish through connections. Coming from different channels, cars can come from customer trade-ins, or be sourced from external agents as examples.
As a business owner, Mr. Lee’s primary responsibility is in the purchase of vehicles for the company’s inventory, as well as ensuring his salesmen were achieving targets with reasonable prices. Equipped with the market knowledge of car prices, he ensures that Euro Performance offers some of the lowest prices in the local market, with a keen eye for a high volume of sales.
Mr. Lee shares that while Euro Performance offers a good price for their products, their salesmen also carry the confidence of the cars with them. Warranties are a means of showing their trust in the products, and Euro Performance has staked their claim as the only car dealership located in the town area of Singapore. This also provided them with a reputation of being in a ‘premium’ district of the city, with also a strong customer trust over the years.
Euro Performance ensures quality customer service by keeping their sales and after-sales top-notch. As cars eventually break down over time, Mr. Lee stresses that his company provides a strong maintenance crew for such events, and as a one-stop solution they can efficiently tackle issues with almost every component of the vehicle.
Mr. Lee handles a group of eight employees, five of whom are salesmen with plenty of freedom given to the working methods as long as they hit their targets and sell their cars. Before being hired, Mr. Lee seeks passion and knowledge from prospective employees. He sees candidates in two categories, one where they wait for sales to come to them, the other an active group who pursues leads and chases for sales with the passion he seeks.
The name Euro Performance comes from the company’s dealings with European cars, and ‘Performance’ from their products of high-performance vehicles. Their advertising includes a strong presence on Facebook as well as Google Adverts and a well-polished website with billboards for a wide coverage of exposure. Euro Performance proves its savviness by collaborating with YouTube influencers and MediaCorp artistes for advertisements, being able to tap into current times with short adverts. Previously they also did roadshows and physical events, but Covid-19 put an end to such events.
For the near future, Mr. Anson quips “Better, Bigger, Stronger” as his future vision for European Performance. As he was forced to close down external branches due to Covid-19, he aims to consolidate his business proper with his branch in town, citing ease of management and stability as a positive result of these measures.
Being a veteran in the scene for almost ten years, Mr. Lee takes pride in the current times where Euro Performance would be the company to go to for European cars, developing both a good reputation in Singapore as well as achieving good sales all around. He credits the company’s success to the passion of both himself and his staff, focusing their finances on long-term marketing campaigns and putting in a lot of effort to build the company’s presence. As a businessman, stable finances and a good quality of life motivated him to work hard, with the ability to work in an area of his passion a great bonus as a motivation factor.
