Effective January 1, all 11 of Mercedes-Benz Canada’s corporate stores will be reporting to Robert Müller, the newly-appointed Vice-President, Corporate Retail.
Previously, the seven Toronto Retail Group (TRG) and four Vancouver Retail Group (VRG) locations were managed under separate leadership. The new structure’s single chain of command will streamline processes as well as generate a more consistent overall customer experience in these two key markets.
The change follows a comprehensive review of Mercedes-Benz Canada’s corporate TRG and VRG retail stores, which have enjoyed several consecutive years of healthy sales and exceptional customer service ratings.
“We take pride in being proactive in all areas of our business—whether anticipating our customers’ needs or identifying new opportunities where we can excel,” said Brian D. Fulton, President and CEO, Mercedes-Benz Canada. “We are committed to driving organizational change from a position of strength, which is why this was an excellent time for us to take this next step toward making an already strong retail organization even better.”
As part of the overall review, Mercedes-Benz Canada engaged an outside consulting firm to conduct a thorough independent assessment of the organizational structure of the corporate retail stores. The findings revealed a timely opportunity for Mercedes-Benz Canada and its corporate stores to better align their strategic efforts under a single chain of command, allowing them to leverage best practices from both TRG and VRG.
In December 2017, Mercedes-Benz Canada announced that Robert Müller would succeed Philipp von Witzendorff as Vice-President, Toronto Retail Group. Under the new structure, Müller’s scope of responsibility expands to include all corporate stores across the country.
Müller started his career with the company in 2006, working as a Service Manager at the then newly built Mercedes-Benz Maple dealership. Over the years, he has gained experience in a variety of roles most recently in Region Europe, where he established and steered a Europe-wide own retail organization. In his new function, Robert will be based in Toronto but will be regularly travelling to Vancouver.
“I look forward to working closely with our Canadian own retail management team in Toronto and Vancouver. Together, we’ll identify opportunities to maintain our leadership position, engage our staff and, most importantly, continue to exceed our customers’ expectations,” says Robert Müller. “It is exciting to be leading this new chapter for Mercedes-Benz Canada’s corporate stores. I am confident that the new structure will make our own retail organization even stronger.”