Ireland’s first dedicated van fleet dealership has never been busier… 

31/07/2024

Kearys Motor Group is the largest family-owned Motor Group in Ireland, and its Renault Van range has been one of the key ingredients to its winning formula. Irish Trucker touched base with Kearys Renault PRO+ Head of Sales Julian Boylan to hear all about the state of business at the minute and the fantastic new premises that opened at the end of 2022. 

These are busy times at Kearys Renault PRO+ Van & Fleet Centre and the plan for its team located in Togher Industrial Estate along the Kinsale Road is to try and keep things that way for the foreseeable.  

As Ireland’s first dedicated van dealership, it has remained completely dedicated to Light Commercial Vehicle customers and, for more than a year now, boasts the largest LCV showroom in the country located at Kinsale Road, Co. Cork.  

Kearys Renault PRO+ also has an after sales department that guarantees to keep one moving, as it has remained very much a one-stop shop for all commercial needs since Bill Keary decided to set it up eight years ago. 

Irish Trucker caught up with Head of Sales, Julian Boylan to hear all about the state-of-the-art premises that he and his colleagues have been honing their craft in for some 14 months now. 

“The sales team separated from the after sales team at Sarsfields Road in Cork now, basically because the sales got too big,” he outlined.  

“So, we’re now in a 40,000 square foot unit on the Kinsale Road in Cork. Sales had to move because we just got too big for the premises and the move itself would’ve happened in December 2022. 

“It’s the biggest indoor LCV showroom in the country which is a great boast.” 

It was a significant rise in sales figures that first brought about Kearys’ decision to go down the Renault PRO+ route and it’s a move which has certainly paid dividends. 

The investment into a new premises in 2022 has been a massive success, as Julian pointed out, with the incorporation of two new companies into the Group in that time as well. 

“We’ve more than doubled our business since moving into this premises and it’s absolutely fantastic,” beamed the Kearys Renault PRO+ Head of Sales.  

“We’ve gained another expert salesman in that time as well and, altogether, we have five guys working in the sales end of the business and, in the building itself, we’ve also incorporated Cork Rent-A-Van. 

“Kearys Motor Group bought Cork Rent-A-Van and we’ve incorporated them into the premises as well and that’s run by Billy Pope. 

“Then we also have Kearys Fleetplan, which is leasing, and that’s run by Kevin Hourihan, Fleet Manager. 

“So, everything is under one roof, which is positive. You can come in and you can buy a van, rent a van or lease a van. So, we have it all under one roof, plenty of options to suit customer needs and it has been flat out since we moved in here.”  

Customers seem to be spoiled for choice as well, with Renault having a golden reputation for the design and build of a range of hardworking and reliable commercial vehicles. 

The most popular vans passing in and out of the gates in Togher Industrial Estate these days are the Trafic, the Master and the more compact Kangoo, according to Julian. 

“I’d say that the two most popular here would be the Trafic and the Master. 

“The Master is probably the best value large van on the market proving very popular with our customers. The 170 horsepower Trafic auto, a high-end van is probably the most advanced van on the market and great value. 

“The Kangoo as well is a very popular small van. It’s available in electric and long wheelbase automatic, which we are fully stocked in.”   

Always willing to innovate and diversify its range, Renault also offer an electric van: the Renault Kangoo Z.E., with the zero-emission version of being amongst their best-selling vans. 

At Kearys Renault PRO+, they work hard on stocking lines along with customer retention and trade-ins to make sure they provide the best product and service to customers.  

All of that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret behind the success of this venture since its inception in 2016? 

Put it to Julian and he’ll tell you that it comes down to a combination of different factors, but he highlights two key elements as the reason behind its continued rise.  

“Firstly, why they choose Renault is because of the value for money, the quality and the warranty,” he stated. 

“There’s a five-year warranty on a Renault van with 200,000km – nobody can match that. There are still guys buying commercial vehicles with two-year warranty and three-year warranty and that’s dreadful. If you can get a five-year warranty, that’s everything in the commercial business.” 

Of course, customer service has always been paramount to Kearys Motor Group and the Kearys Renault PRO+ team, having always taken huge pride in providing customers with the very best standards of sales and after-sales. We take great pride in the community we have built from exceptional customer service, building relationships with local businesses. We are also proud Van Partners of Cork GAA. We give the Cork Football & Hurling Minor, U20 and Senior teams a Renault traffic as a kit van. This is a long-standing partnership, and it gives us great pride to see our logo on the vans. 

Multiple awards have been won over the past eight years to prove that fact, including the Renault PRO+ LCV Dealer of the Year in 2017.  

Looking towards the months ahead for Kearys Renault PRO+, Julian says customer service will once again be the top priority for him and the rest of the team. 

“The hopes would be to keep growing and keep the customer service that we have. Our business, yes, it’s repeat business, but since we moved into the new premises the comfort of an indoor showroom for LCV made a huge difference to the customer experience. They’re able to walk in and view every make and model and it makes a huge difference to us.  

“The LCV market is very, very strong at the moment and it will be for 2024 and into 2025 as well,” he concluded. 

Fantastic to hear.  

Kearys Renault PRO+ 
Unit Pd2,  
Togher Industrial Estate,  
Cork 
T12 NX94 
Tel (Sales): 021 234 0400 
Web: kearys.ie/renault 

First published in Irish Trucker magazine June 2024, Vol 27-3