The first edition of the 2018 FADA Awards, in its new avatar, was held in New Delhi on February 9, 2018, at Hotel Le Meridien.

The day-long event was organised by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), the apex national body representing the automobile dealers across India, and saw participation from nearly 400 dealers from across India, vying for recognition of their excellence in the areas of dealership management, CSR and community service.

The prestigious industry event saw a packed house of achievers that have helped OEMs extend their reach across the country and serve as a facilitator between the industry and the consumer. Ashish Kale, vice-president, FADA, took the centre stage to welcome the large audience and shared his insights on the various disruptions facing the industry. He was followed by John K Paul, president, FADA, expressed confidence that the dealership fraternity will be able to taken on the new challenges. Hormazd Sorabjee, editor, Autocar India and managing director, Haymarket SAC Publishing, lauded the apex body for its contribution to the Indian automotive industry.

Chief guest Prakash Jawadekar, Union Minister of Human Resource Development, government of India, through a video message, expressed happiness on FADA and Autocar Professional joining hands and hosting the FADA Awards. He said: "Today, vehicles have become part of an individual’s life and therefore we must bring in the best practices in the industry which affects everybody.” He also congratulated FADA on hosting an event which also focuses on sustainability, digital, CSR and employee engagement initiatives.  

Commenting about the evaluation process, Hormazd Sorabjee, editor, Autocar India, said, "The jury process was quite stringent where were we focused equally on quality and quantity. Our knowledge partner comes with a huge experience in customer satisfaction at the dealer level and, most importantly, the jurors are backed with very strong industry experience."

John Paul, president, FADA, said: "We received a record number of entries this year and our aim is to see the FADA Awards as being the landmark on dealer achievement or dealer excellence."

Ravi Narayanan, senior general manager, ICICI Bank, said, "ICICI Bank has been instrumental in scripting a new era in retail banking. From 2000 to 2008, we were instrumental in rewriting the way retail loans are done in the country. Earlier, taking any kind of retail loan used to be a very lengthy process but we were able to script things in such a way that taking a loan became very simple." Talking about the ICICI Bank’s retail business, he remarked, “We are a serious player in the retail financing business, which constitutes almost about 50 percent in our balance sheet." 

The FADA Awards
The 2018 FADA Awards honour those who have achieved excellence in their sphere of work across the two- and three- wheeler, passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle segments, with one winner and sub-winner in each category.

The jury comprised leaders in the automotive field including Hormazd Sorabjee, editor, Autocar India; Debashis Mitra, president, Greaves Cotton India; Sudhir Rao, managing director, Bombardier Transportation; Dilip Chenoy, director general, FICCI; Arvind Saxena, former president and managing director, GM India; Dr Wilfried Aulbur, managing partner, Roland Berger India and Rajiv Lochan, founder and CEO, PremonAsia.

The entries for the 2018 FADA Awards, which began in November 2017, were evaluated on four parameters – Customer Satisfaction (30%), Team Management (30%), Business Performance (25%) and Other Factors (15%). The jury had a tough task in front of them having to finalise the award winners, as each of the entries were winners amongst themselves.

Finally, after evaluation based on various factors, the jury’s verdict saw Cargo Motors, Rajasthan as the winner in the Employee Engagement initiatives category; Talwar Auto Garages, Hyderabad for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives; V J Automobiles, Mumbai in Digital Initiatives; Shree Vinayak Motors and Sachin Motors in three-wheelers; Cargo Motors, Jalandhar and Rajasthan and Autobahn Trucking, Ernakulam for commercial vehicle; ESS ELL Motors, Dehradun and V J Automobiles, Mumbai in two-wheelers; Lally Motors, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur along with Amit Motors, Faizabad in the four-wheelers category respectively.

The FADA Awards were partnered by ICICI Bank (Presenting Partner), Reliance General Insurance (Insurance Partner), AkzoNobel (Styling Partner), Devilbiss (Associate Partner) and PremonAsia (Knowledge Partner).