Gulliver shuts down NZ branches
Japanese-owned dealership Gulliver has closed its doors here, putting some of the blame for its decision on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The company, which had already scaled back its New Zealand operations this year, shut its last branch on Auckland’s North Shore on June 22.
Gulliver, which employed 38 staff nationwide, announced in May the closure of its Christchurch and East Tamaki sites.
Gulliver began operating in New Zealand in 2014 and has more than 600 branches in Japan and dozens more worldwide. It is part of IDOM Inc, which was founded in 1994 and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section
In a statement on its New Zealand website, Gulliver thanks customers for their support over the years.
“However, due to various reasons and with the impact of Covid-19, unfortunately we have no choice but to close down all our branches as of Monday 22nd June 2020,” it adds.
“Knowing that we have been supported by you all, it has been a very difficult decision to make, but we would like to ask for your understanding.”
The maintenance and servicing of cars sold by Gulliver is being transferred to another Japanese-owned dealership, Ichinen Autos, which has premises in Auckland at Penrose and Greenlane.
Gulliver’s online statement adds that July will be a handover period and Ichinen will start to respond directly to any Gulliver customer enquiries from August 1.
Kazuko Mori, manager of Ichinen Autos, told Autofile Online on June 23 the companies are set to meet before the end of the month to arrange handover details.
“We’re sorry to hear Gulliver is closing down,” she says. “We have been dealing with Gulliver before and doing some service work for them, so will be happy to take over the servicing work for their customers.
“Nothing has been confirmed yet, we’re waiting on some information from them and we will be having a meeting this week to sort out the paperwork. Gulliver is still operating until the end of July and we will probably start doing their work from August.”
About Ichinen Autos NZ
Ichinen Autos NZ was incorporated in October 2016 and is 95 per cent owned by Ichinen Holdings, which is headquartered in Osaka.
The other five per cent of the New Zealand operation is owned by one of its directors, Takeyoshi Nagao, from Auckland’s North Shore.
Ichinen Holdings’ operations in Japan include an automotive leasing business, along with agriculture, chemical, parking, machine tool sales, and synthetic resin businesses.
