Automotive News Canada - February 2021 - 12

* F E B R U A R Y 2 021

The switch to digital from physical
By JIL McINTOSH

OSHAWA CORRESPONDENT

GEORGE BIDZIOS
PUTTING VALUE INTO
VEHICLE EVALUATIONS

WHEN DEALERS CONNECT
with customers, they need
online tools specific to their
needs. As product manager
for Kelley Blue Book Canada
in Mississauga, Ont., George
Bidzios
takes feedback from
clients
and works
with the
development team
to create new
tools or
improve existing ones.
Kelley Blue Book's website
connects consumers looking
for cars with dealers who post
their vehicles on the site, or
offer online quotes.
" It starts with understanding what the market needs,
and then how we make a [digital] tool. I'm working with [our
teams] on all product initiatives within Canada. "
Bidzios, 28, earned a business-administration degree
but it was difficult to find a
job when he graduated in 2014.
When friends mentioned an
online ad for an internship,
he applied. It was for analyzing website performance data

George Bidzios went from
dealing with physical vehicles
at BMW to digital products
with Kelley Blue Book
Canada, launched by Cox.
PHOTO: COX AUTOMOTIVE CANADA

for the online travel provider Trivago and required him
to move to Germany for his
eight-month placement.
Afterward, " I had to determine whether to live abroad.
I took an inward turn to see
what I wanted to do, so I made
the decision to come back
to my friends and family in
Canada and start from scratch.
I had been a gearhead since I
was 16 and I loved BMW and I

EMAIL YOUR PICKS

Please send nominations
for the Unobvious Ones to:
jil@ca.inter.net

applied there. I worked at head
office on the product-planning
team and moved up to be an
analyst on product planning. "
Cox Automotive was
launching Kelley Blue Book in
Canada for 2019 and recruited
Bidzios.
" I started as an evaluation analyst, making sure we
could develop relevant vehicle
values. Then I saw an opportunity to go to product development. In BMW I had physical products, and now I was
on digital products. It's about
organization, communication
and keeping everyone concentrated on the goal. "

Paul Andreana " found
a love for credit " in
banking but a passion
for automotive eventually
landed him a position
with Volvo.
P H O T O : V O LV O C A R S C A N A D A

ROBERTO CARRASCO

PAUL ANDREANA

IT TAKES A LOT OF HARD
work to earn an engineering
degree in Mexico. Roberto
Carrasco credits the discipline he learned at university as the basis for his success
as director and co-founder
of Autocap North America.
Headquartered in Burnaby,
B.C., Autocap makes service-department supplies for
dealerships.
The main product is fabric bags for customers to store
locking wheel nuts, printed
with the dealer's name.
" We're now making reusable masks with the client's
logo, " said Carrasco. " We'll go
back to our other main line,
reusable protection [such as]

ONCE CUSTOMERS HAVE
decided on a car, the next step
includes products for financing, warranty and appearance.
As market manager for
Volvo Car Financial Services,
Paul Andreana is the link to
the companies supplying these
services.
Andreana is based at
Volvo's headquarters in
Richmond Hill, Ont., supporting dealers in Central and
Western Canada.
" My job is making sure
there's no breakdown in the
relationship between the partner, the store and the manufacturer. If there's a new program, I get it out to the dealers. Because we're smaller
[than other automakers], I get
to play an active role in creating that program. I take feedback from our retailers and
make sure that's heard before
things are brought to market. "
Andreana, 33, got an afterschool job washing cars at a
Lexus dealership.
" I loved it, and if it paid better, I might still be doing it. "
After studying human
resources in college, he took a
job at TD Canada Trust, starting as a bank teller.
" I found a love for credit and ended up as a lending
specialist in deal structuring,
which is any loan outside the
norm. That lasted about 10
years, but I had a calling to follow my passion, which was
automotive. "
He was hired by a BMW
store in Toronto and sold cars
and was then recruited by a
fleet-management company to
sell fleet packages. Six months
later, he got a call from Volvo.
" They were starting a program with these new [financial, warranty and appearance] products, but didn't have
a customer-experience program to match them. "
A little over a year after
joining Volvo in April 2019, he
was promoted to manager.
" My time selling cars was
so valuable, because I understand [customer] stresses
and recognize when a retailer needs a solution. We don't
just assign these products, but
listen to our retailers to make
sure we're dynamic in the
marketplace. " - ANC

SALES FLOOR BUILT
MARKETING FOUNDATION

DEALER SUPPLIER
IS A FAMILY AFFAIR

Take the lead with our

REVolutionary DMS
Offer your dealers the REVolutionary
Dealership Performance System. You
will take the lead in today's competitive
environment while keeping your
f inger on the pulse. We are not just
a DMS. Let us drive you forward.

Sales@QuorumInfoTech.com | 877.770.0036 x267 | XSellerator.com

Roberto Carrasco uses
his methodical approach
as an engineer to
overcome challenges in his
dealer-supply business.
PHOTO: AUTOCAP

steering-wheel covers, floormat covers and fender covers.
It's not recommended to use
reusable [during COVID-19], so
we have to wait a bit. "
Carrasco, 56, is from
Guanajuato, Mexico, about
400 kilometres northwest of
Mexico City. He and twin
brother Agustin both became
engineers, but while in school
they began making covers for
video cassette recorders and
washing machines.
" We did our first vehicle
covers in 1986, just before we
graduated, and dealerships
started ordering. Then we
started supplying assembly
plants like Nissan in Mexico,
and realized we were not going
to look for jobs as engineers. "
The twins and another
brother founded the Autocap
factory in Mexico.
" In 1995, Mexico changed
presidents, and every time we
do there's a crisis. I thought
I'd try somewhere else and
applied to Canada. We survived the crisis and were
almost the only supplier left
in the industry and we landed
a contract with Home Depot
in the U.S. for all their uniforms. "
Carrasco eventually moved
to Canada and spent a few
years working in tourism.
In 1997, Agustin joined him
in Canada, where both handle the products from their
Mexico factory.
" [Agustin] deals with the
manufacturing, and I do all
the sales and promotion across
North America. It's all family-owned, and we are grateful to be running our business
here in Canada. "

http://www.XSellerator.com

Automotive News Canada - February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - February 2021