Hippo Motor Group scoops three Hive awards

Three talented and hardworking individuals from the Hippo Motor Group have been rewarded at the annual 2022 Hive Business Awards.

Sales manager Crystal Elwell, project manager Alistair Eddleston, and group managing director Tom Preston scooped the Rising Star of the Year, Employee of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year, respectively.

The hat-trick of awards illustrates the wealth of talent within the Blackburn organisation and how the team is supported to achieve success.

Crystal started at Hippo working on reception in 2016 and had her eyes firmly set on a career in sales.

She went from receptionist to junior underwriter to sales account manager within two years, before moving up to senior sales account manager, prior to promotion as sales manager in March this year.

She has worked tirelessly to achieve sales targets and prove that a female can succeed in what has long been a male-dominated role.

Alistair and his colleague Matt Doney saw Covid as an opportunity to digitise and automate Hippo's underwriting services in order to expand their capacity.

Alistair took it upon himself to start looking into the capabilities of the company’s CRM system, Hippo Fuse and the more he delved, the more potential he found within the system.

His efforts have since resulted in the business being able to automate 80 per cent of its credit check process, saving the business £150,000 per annum.

And both of these employees have always had the full backing of Group MD Tom Preston, who has shown huge resilience and entrepreneurial spirit throughout his own Hippo journey.

What he started from scratch in 2007 is now a business with 330 members of staff, four businesses under the Hippo Motor Group umbrella and an overall turnover of £120m, with ambitious growth plans to reach a £250m turnover in the next three years.

A stark contrast to his early days selling about 10 cars a month and doing pretty much everything himself - from buying, to marketing, and selling.

Tom said: “Seeing Crystal’s and Alistair’s achievements recognised among our regional business peers was incredibly rewarding.

“Both have shown determination and passion that has since been recognised with internal promotions and we are certain of greater things from them in years to come.

“It was fantastic to celebrate Blackburn’s successes with fellow local businesspeople who have a shared passion for the area, and it was good to hear about exciting plans for the town’s future growth and development,” he added.