New owners for dealership

Paul Kelly has sold his eponymous Christchurch business after stepping away from the automotive industry after nearly three decades.

The Paul Kelly Motor Company was established in 1998 with three staff and the used-car dealership grew over the years before also adding a dedicated service centre.

It has now been bought by Dan Chima, Yuri Van Toor and Darren Griffith, who also run Ute Nation and Southern Specialist Cars in Christchurch, and rebranded as The Motor Company.

Kelly told Autofile he has sold about 70,000 cars to consumers over the years and proudly states his company was never involved in any dispute tribunals.

“It hasn’t been just a job for me, it’s been a career. I always ran that business not so much standing there selling cars but looking at it from the outside as a customer,” he says. 

“From the word go, I wanted to run it like a Harvey Norman or a big local store and not just a used-car yard. I think that was the biggest advantage I had.”

The business has had consistently low staff turnover and a number of employees have been there more than two decades, with Kelly noting he was always keen to foster a good culture and working environment.

“I’m proud of everything we’ve achieved and it wasn’t just about me. It was the guys preparing the cars right, buying them right, delivering them and being professional. I was just the guy who had to steer the team in the right direction and make sure we had good morals and standards.”

Kelly, 56, says he decided to sell the business this year but waited for the right opportunity and the right person to own it “because that was more important to me than what I got paid for it”.

“It was all about the actual owner and how they would look after the people working there and, so far, all I’ve seen is really good because everybody kept their job.”

Kelly notes he is stepping away from the automotive sector and plans to focus his efforts on growing the commercial, retail, office and industrial property business he has been running in the background up until now.

The recent takeover of his automotive business included a sales site on Moorhouse Avenue, Christchurch, pictured below, and the former PK Auto Services on Stevens Street, which has been renamed The Motor Company Service Centre.

Chima says a key aspect of the arrangement was retaining the previous staff, who totalled about 20 employees.

“It’s been a longstanding business in Christchurch and has got a great reputation but more importantly there’s a huge amount of respect for the team we’ve taken over,” he explains.

“A lot of them have been with Paul Kelly for 10 or 20-plus years and they have a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge that can’t be replaced very easily. The people we’ve taken on with the business are a key part of why we decided to do it.”

The Motor Company has ambitions to expand its number of sites and is looking for future opportunities in the used-car space.

Chima adds: “I don’t see us changing the target market of those $10,000 to $40,000 used cars, but I think there’s room for the company to double its footprint and double its stock holding in the short-to-medium term.”

• Check out the September issue of Autofile magazine to read the full story