From a single dealership to an award-winning multi-franchise – that’s the silver jubilee of Farmer Motor Group as it celebrates its Autovillage, which takes up a whole city block in Tauranga, writes John Oxley.
“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow”. That old English saying might have been written especially for the Farmer Motor Group, for indeed the group started from a single Nissan franchise, and now, 25 years later, has a $120-million a year turnover selling no fewer than 11 brands.
“We started as Bay Nissan in 1991 in Cameron Road,” says group managing director Mike Farmer.
“We had about 12 people working for us in those days, but we quickly became the Nissan Dealer of the Year, a title which we won seven times in a row until the programme was discontinued. After that we won the Nissan Sales Satisfaction Award, which is an international award held every second year, and we won it in 2003, 2005, and 2007”.
Mike said a decision was made to expand the business in 1993, and Audi-VW and Subaru franchises were obtained.
“Audi-VW was small back then but it is now a huge part of our overall business,” said Mike. In fact the business was growing so fast that the Cameron Road site had become too small, and so the decision was made to build Farmer Autovillage on Hewletts Road, comprising Alfa Romeo, Audi, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Skoda, Subaru and Volkswagen franchises.
“Since completing this facility in 2008 we have added Hyundai on one corner on its own standalone site, and later transferred Nissan to a new corner site, so we now have a full city block of cars,” said Mike.
At the same time the Nissan site on Hewletts Road was converted into a new Audi Sport showroom.
“There are 11 brands in total, and we now employ 103 people,” said Mike.
“We like to work on the basis of about $1.1m turnover per employee, so that puts our $120-million a year about right,” he added.
Mike said a major decision made about 10 years ago was a major factor in the success of the business.
“A pivotal point in 2005-2006 was when we made a conscious decision to separate the brands,” he added.
“The key to multi franchising is not to have shared accountability between the brands”.
“One of the things that as a company we are proud of is that when we opened the doors at the Autovillage in July 2008 it was just as the recession caused by the GFC was starting. But we streamlined the business and got through the first year without dropping a cent – although we didn’t make much, either!
“Since then we have seen eight years of solid growth, year on year”.
And what of the future?
“We have just completed major changes to split accountability in the used car operation, and at this stage our main focus is to ensure this is sturdy and strong,” adds Mike.
“For the future we will be looking for continued sustainable and stable growth – but not just for growth’s sake!”
