Port Elizabeth’s Tavcor Motor Group is investing R60-million in new offices and a showroom in the Metro’s new motor hub on the William Moffett motorway.
The new premises will be built to the Volkswagen worldwide standard for new generation dealerships, according to group chief executive officer Alan Taverner.
Tavcor’s new five thousand square metre building will include showrooms for 20 new vehicles, 70 used vehicles, as well as a 26 bay workshop and full service parts outlet. Parking for 250, cars and a full service from Tavcor MotoRent will also be housed on the site.
Tavcor expects to service over 100 cars a day.
The staff of 120 will move from the company’s premises of 42 years on Mount Road in Port Elizabeth’s North End.
Tavcor, which is the third largest single outlet dealership in South Africa, has won numerous Volkswagen South Africa and national awards for service and performance.
The company received ISO14001 accreditation status in 2010, and is the only VW Dealership in South Africa to achieve this level.
Its new headquarters have been designed as a “green” building. Rain water harvesting will feed into water tanks capable of holding 200 000 litres. The water will be used by empowerment car wash company, Siyoyisa.
Taverner says he is sad to see Volkswagen leave Mount Road, but equally glad to be able to add much needed capacity for the future. “This move positions Tavcor Volkswagen for the next 20 years”.
The existing embassy building will stay in the family, and would house a suite of new businesses from July 2012.
The project is being managed by Johann Lochner of Robinson Baker and Lochner associates. The building has been designed by Alchemy Architects, appointed by VWGSA to implement new corporate identity projects in South Africa.
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When one sees the premises these dealerships operate from, it is not hard to understand why cars are so expensive in SA – their profits must be astronomical. One would think that in an economic downturn, there’d be austerity measures in place.
Well, isn’t it all relative? I wonder how the dealerships for exotics survive when they are selling less than 100 vehicles a month countrywide and also ‘have to keep up with the Jones’ who are selling almost 9 000 vehicles per month in SA only along with another 8 000 that are exported.
Could it be that the exotics have an even higher profit margin?
The guys at Williams Hunt must be very worried about all the other dealerships building bigger and better buildings just down the road and they are stuck with what they have.