“It was a ‘welcome home’ in a way,” says Nicola Dobson, on walking back into Peugeot’s Coventry offices in January, this time as UK managing director.

“It was a nice feeling. I know so many people who work within the brand, and it was a very positive response from the team.”

Dobson’s experience at Peugeot began in 2000 on the graduate programme. She went on to have eight other roles across the business, including stints as Citroën’s UK marketing director and leading Stellantis UK’s used car operation, culminating in this opportunity.

Since Dobson rejoined, Peugeot’s sales are up almost 40% year on year, at just over 70,000 units, and it has sold more cars than any other Stellantis brand in the UK, Vauxhall included.

Peugeot is challenging Hyundai, Toyota, Mercedes and Nissan for fifth spot in the UK sales charts, and of the brands that sold more than 10,000 cars in the UK last year, its growth is the largest by some margin. Dobson says the success is a team effort, the result of work to improve stock levels and logistical operations to boost availability, plus improved marketing to get customers into dealers in the first place.

Dobson has spent time working in less heralded but ultimately crucial parts of the industry in distribution, production and managing stock, and she is in regular contact with central teams to ensure the UK is getting through the right cars and in a timely manner.

“We’ve been proactive trying to see where the future opportunities are, where the market is going and what the demand is, then getting the stock to meet that,” she says.

Dobson says she would take roles as they came up to build her experience: “The top job at a brand in a country is always something you aspire to.”

She is happy with the brand’s mainstream positioning but notes the firm’s push for class-leading interiors: “When you get in a Peugeot, hopefully you think it’s a nice place to be.”

A big change is coming with the next-generation 208 (previewed by the Polygon concept) and its Hypersquare steering ‘wheel’, a square-shaped steer-by-wire system.

When asked if such a radical change presents a risk to the progress made raising the appeal of Peugeot’s interiors, Dobson says she sees it as bringing innovation to the masses – but adds it will be a choice for buyers, suggesting a more conventional wheel will remain as standard.

However impressive her success so far, Dobson’s main goal to bring more potential customers into showrooms is clear: “We need to get more people in our cars. When they get in our cars, they think: ‘Wow, this is brilliant.’ They’re more likely to continue their journey with Peugeot.”