Bridgestone Service Centre Warrnambool has clinched the prestigious Truck Store of the Year title in Bridgestone's annual DRIVE program awards. As well as the national truck store award, Bridgestone Service Centre Warrnambool also clinched Bridgestone Service Centre of the Year for Victoria/Tasmania.
DRIVE is the national recognition program for Bridgestone Select and Bridgestone Service Centres around the country. Launched in 2020, DRIVE sees stores benchmarked in line with Bridgestone values of customer centricity, delivering a leading customer experience and exceptional value for tyre and auto services.
The program recognises the top stores nationally and by region across three main categories: Franchise of the Year for Bridgestone Select stores, Store of the Year for Bridgestone Service Centres, and Truck Store of the Year for the best performing store for Bridgestone truck, bus and retread sales.
According to Bridgestone Service Centre Warrnambool owner, Peter Baulch, the accolade is a direct result of family teamwork and the local trucking community rallying around his store.
"I couldn't be prouder of the team and our customer base. To win this prestigious award has been a big effort by everyone, and it's shared between my boys, the team at the store, and our customers," Peter Baulch said.
"I'm very lucky to have incredible support in this family business, with my son Tim running the retail side, and my other son Jamie running the truck division - and it's through teamwork, innovation and working with our customers that we've won this accolade."
Bridgestone Service Centre Warrnambool has recently opened a dedicated truck workshop in Hammond Place to better meet the needs of fleet and truck customers, as well as operating the primary store in Fairy Street. The result has led to significant growth in the store's fleet business across the Bridgestone and Firestone truck range, with local customers seeing even greater value and service delivery.
"It was a bit of a shock to win what is usually a highly competitive award," Jamie Baulch admitted.
"We're usually up against some stiff competition against some of the big mining contracts serviced by WA stores, so for a small country town to win the award is special, and really speaks to the support we get from our customers.
"We've come a long way and it's a great reward for our team - they really bust their backsides day in, day out, so this belongs to them."
Joining Bridgestone Centre Warrnambool with regional truck store of the year honours was Bridgestone Service Centre Gladstone for Queensland, Bridgestone Service Centre Kempsey for NSW/ACT, Bridgestone Service Centre Ceduna for SA/NT and Bridgestone Service Centre Wedgefield (Port Hedland) for WA.
Bridgestone Australia & New Zealand Managing Director Heath Barclay is proud that the focus of the Bridgestone network remained on the customer despite the challenges of 2021.
"We're delighted to recognise our DRIVE program winners and showcase their commitment to customers. Peter, Jamie and Tim Baulch have done a fantastic job to win both the National Truck Store of the Year award, as well as the regional Service Centre of the Year prize," Mr Barclay said.
"Bridgestone has been named Australia's most trusted tyre brand by Reader's Digest, and our network has the most satisfied customer according to Canstar Blue, so our DRIVE program is recognising the best of the best.
"The DRIVE program highlights the effort our network makes in delivering exceptional service, value for money and continuing to build trust with customers. Despite lockdowns and a continually changing business landscape, our stores have remained fixed on these core values and continue to do our brand proud.
"DRIVE continues to set the benchmark across our network, and I am thrilled with how competitive the results were in 2021. Ultimately, our customers are the real winners through the DRIVE program - and our stores are performing by delivering on customer needs," Mr Barclay added.
