Alex Smith, who took the helm of the manufacturer’s UK commercial vehicle operation in November 2011, admitted the Crafter’s performance does not match that of its smaller stablemates, the Transporter and Caddy, which command about 20% of the medium and light van segments respectively, as opposed to the Crafter’s 5% share of the large van sector. Smith said one reason for this is that other brands have been quicker to establish links with bodybuilders.
“We need to catch up in conversions,” Smith told What Van? “We’ve been under represented here.”
He claimed the Crafter was ideally suited to be developed as a tipper or dropside, for example, but acknowledged Volkswagen needed to establish better relationships with the major converters in order to achieve expertise in the field.
But while VW is keen to grow conversion business for the Crafter, Smith stressed it would not chase heavy van volume just for the sake of it.
“The (large van) market is quite high cost,” he said, “we go after profitable, sustainable growth.”
As a result, Smith said the manufacturer would not push the Crafter into daily rental or flexi-rent contracts to boost numbers.
“We defined a larger share for the Caddy and Transporter, you’ll never see the Crafter getting to a 20% market share.”
VW is currently sounding out prospective customers about launching the Crafter 4Motion in the UK.
“We think there’s a market for the 4×4 Crafter. It can do a great job for a limited number of customers,” Smith said.
