Bowater Toyota lands top award
Nelson’s Bowater Toyota retained the marque’s supreme award at the hotly contested Toyota and Lexus business excellence awards.
The franchise received the top honour for all aspects of store operations, market leadership and branch facilities.
After sharing the supreme award with South Canterbury Toyota in 2020, Bowater Toyota was singularly awarded the top award for its achievements in 2021. It also secured the president’s trophy for outstanding customer service.
Bowater is no stranger to winning at the awards having taken out the overall title in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Tony Bowater, chief executive officer, is the third-generation owner of the Nelson business, which also has branches in Richmond and Motueka.
He says: “The whole team at Bowater Toyota is delighted. It really does recognise the hard work we all put in during the year and the commitment we have to provide the best service we can to our fantastic customers in the Nelson region.”
Steve Prangnell, Toyota NZ’s general manager of franchise development, says the awards, which were held virtually on March 17, celebrate the contribution the 64-strong store network makes to the ongoing trust of the brand in New Zealand – something needed more than ever during the past year.
“To say the business environment over the past 24 months has been challenging would be an understatement,” says Prangnell. “With lockdowns, economic downturn and supply-chain issues, 2021 presented our stores with operating conditions they’ve never experienced before.
“Despite this, the efforts and success of the network throughout the past year have been nothing short of amazing with exceptional results across the board. Our new-vehicle store network came together to deliver 30,200 vehicle sales, obtain a market share of 18.4 per cent and ensure 34 years of continuous market leadership.”
It was also a successful night for Ebbett Toyota in Hamilton and Rutherford & Bond Toyota in Wellington, which both won two awards each.
Ebbett Toyota’s chief executive officer, Tony Coutinho, secured the third premier excellence in leadership award for outstanding leadership of a team, as well as the parts and accessories excellence cup.
Rutherford & Bond Toyota scooped the new-vehicle excellence cup and branch of the year for its premises in Kapiti.
The fourth premier award of the night, the Lexus supreme award, went to Lexus of Auckland City. Other winners of excellence cups were Manukau Toyota for financial services excellence, Manawatu Toyota for used vehicles and South Canterbury Toyota for service.
Prangnell adds: “Having clear awards criteria gives branches targets to aim for. Every year the competition seems to be more intense as our stores aim for continuous improvement.”
