5th September 2024

Greg Adams

After graduating from Sheffield Hallam University in 2012 with a degree in Business and Marketing, Greg began his working life with an online car finance broker. This led to him managing a number of dealership relationships, after which he joined Scania Financial Services (SFS) as Business Manager for West Pennine Trucks. From there, Greg went on to Support SFS work in Scania’s North and East regions as well as Road Trucks in Northern Ireland before taking up his current position as National Fleet Manager.

Tell us about your role

I support and look after the fleet sales team for Scania (Great Britain) Limited who deal with all the major national accounts – the supermarkets, nationwide retailers and large hauliers who buy from Scania in bulk.  I also work with the municipal bodybuilders which produce council chassis, fire engines and so on.  Quite a lot of our work is based on tenders and it’s my job to construct finance packages to suit the needs of these larger operators. In common with my earlier retail roles, Relationship Management is a key part of the job too.  But where I was previously speaking to one-man-bands and mostly smaller companies, here we’re often talking to board-level fleet and finance directors.  The objective is to ensure everything keeps running smoothly, and with large firms where things can change quickly it’s important that we maintain an ongoing dialogue.  In some cases, that can mean speaking to the customer on a monthly or even weekly basis.

Tell us more about Relationship Management

While some contracts are agreed, signed and sealed up front, it’s often the case with large national account deals that finance arrangements are made on an on-going basis as trucks come through. This is in order to accommodate any changing needs the customer may have at that particular time. The starting point for me is to establish that credit lines are in place to cover the contract, after which we look to optimise the finance arrangements for each vehicle as it enters service.  Many factors can have an impact on our customers’ requirements throughout their agreement period with us; seasonality or ramping up for a new contract, for example. Flexibility is the key here.  Speaking to our customers on a regular basis gives us the insights we need to allow us to be as flexible as possible and ensure we are always doing the best for them we possibly can.

What’s the best part of your job?

I love building and maintaining relationships with people.  And the people you meet and the different skill sets they've got – that’s something I'm really interested in. So I enjoy that.  Also, seeing the financial solutions we put in place work for their businesses and helping them grow. That’s an interesting thing for me because I've been doing it for three years now and I can see what we’ve talked about working in practice, helping the customer move forward and carry on buying Scania products.

How would you describe the culture at SFS?

I love Scania Finance because as well as being focused on success I think the culture is really fun.  If you work hard you get rewarded and you get recognised for doing that – I think that's important. Everybody within the business I've worked with wants to do well and succeed and push the business forwards.  That's really important, especially as we're now on a new journey now with a new MD.  I think this drive for success will really, really come to fruition and help people move forward with our business.

How has your role developed while you’ve been with SFS?

I’ve been with the company for almost six years now and in that time I’ve been able to progress my career and develop a lot. It’s been great listening to and learning from my peers and gradually being offered more responsibility within the business. I’ve always been keen to succeed and SFS has given me every opportunity to do so – it’s been great.

And finally, what are your interests outside work?

When I’m not at work, my life revolves around family and a few passions that have been with me for years. I’m a dad to three young children, two girls and one boy, so my days are full of energy, fun, and a bit of chaos! We love traveling together and making the most of our time as a family.

One of my long-standing hobbies is golf. I’ve been playing since I was young and currently have a handicap of 5. I’m fortunate that my wife shares my love for golf and is incredibly supportive. Most Saturdays, you’ll find me on the golf course, enjoying those 4+ hours of peace and quiet! It’s something I hope we can all do together as a family in the future, especially since my eldest daughter has just started taking lessons!

I’m also a lifelong supporter of West Bromwich Albion. I held a season ticket for 20 years and loved going to home and away games with my dad. While I don’t get to the matches as often now, my passion for the team is as strong as ever.