Gémar Hompes, Sofico Managing Director
Sofico, global provider of automotive finance, leasing and mobility management systems, has ended its 30th anniversary year with record results.
The Belgium-based business saw record turnover of €34.7 million in 2018, up 16.4% on the €29.8 million of the previous year. With a total of 258 full-time employees and over 50 system implementations completed, its Miles solution manages contracts in 24 different countries across the world.
The main driver behind the continued success have been the company’s growth strategy, focused on product innovation and local presence to better service the needs of customers.
In terms of innovation, Miles.next has expanded Sofico’s product offering with a cloud-native micro-services architecture boasting a decision-support framework and turning the existing Miles Core ERP application into a hybrid solution platform. This enables customers worldwide to meet the changing demands of the global automotive market.
In the past three years, local offices have been established in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and Mexico. Each office works on local implementation projects in addition to providing support to existing local customers.
Sofico Services Netherlands for example, posted a steady annual increase of 15% in turnover since it was founded in 2016. Over that period, staff increased from 5 to 22 and the number of vehicle contracts managed grew by 25%.
The new local offices are in addition to offices established earlier in Australia, Japan and France, increasing the number of those outside Belgium from three to seven. The offices in Mexico, Australia and Japan act as a hub for customers in the Latin America and Asia Pacific regions respectively.
Gémar Hompes, Sofico Managing Director, said: “We are delighted with our growth figures as they are a true indicator of our success in meeting the changing needs of our customers around the world.
“Our customers have benefitted greatly from our continuous investment in Miles, while Miles.next has allowed us to widen the scope of our solutions in line with the way the global market is developing towards Mobility-as-a-Service.
“As a result, Miles is now a true hybrid contract management system capable of meeting the needs of a global market where the effective management of multiple business lines and different mobility solutions is becoming an absolute necessity,” he said.
“Meanwhile, our local office strategy has allowed us to adapt our solutions to more readily meet the needs of local market conditions and has been instrumental in attracting local staff with knowledge of the local market and languages,” he added.
