AP Eagers, Australia’s largest listed car retailing group is four years into a 50-year Strategic Plan which will look to completely reinvent the traditional dealership business model.

The Strategic Plan which centres around preparing for the potential disruption current dealerships are facing, will see AP Eagers will move the centre of its operations to the AP Eagers Brisbane Auto Mall currently being built in Newstead, North Brisbane.

The Brisbane Auto Mall is being designed with the purpose of turning existing suburban dealerships into boutique showrooms for multiple brands while expanding car manufacturers retail presence in shopping centres and opening service-only operations.

The entire plan is strategically linked to online platforms and will seamlessly connect various showrooms and service facilities to customers at home or within remaining AP Eager facilities.

Martin Ward, CEO of AP Eagers said, “One of these pieces of the jigsaw without that other is probably not a good plan.

“A standalone service department on its own won’t work.

“A couple of four-car showrooms in a shopping centre is probably not going to satisfy a manufacturer, but when it is linked into an automall at the airport, (they buy in).

“The new hub of AP Eagers for the next 50 years is going to be at the airport.”

AP Eagers has leased a 64,000 square metre area at the Brisbane Airport to build the Auto Mall, effective for 76 years.

The company will first look to have 12 car dealerships set up with a $10 million glass box and  a service department behind that.

As the automotive industry changes, the Auto Mall will change to incorporate electric vehicle charging stations, subscription services, solar panels and more.

“The reality is that our retailing structure for the next 20 years in Brisbane is a hybrid between shopping centres, boutique stores, standalone service departments and the airport.

“Our view is that based on today’s business model, we can probably sell 40 or 50 per cent more because we will probably keep 95 per cent of our current customers” Mr Ward said.

“I might add that means we are not going to be at Newstead. Now we are going to be at Newstead for the next 10 years – not for all of the brands but for some of them.

“Don’t assume we are going to be out immediately. The airport will not be finished until 2025. We don’t get the land until December 2020. We will move in December 2021 and we will have completed everything by 2025.

“This is not a five-minute journey. We agreed the (airport) deal two years ago.

“We are genuinely excited by these different components we are preparing and many of these things started three or four years ago. Most of it is in play right now.

“So there is a long journey and I don’t know all the answers on which way it will go. But it is all going to happen over the next 50 years and it is really exciting and I can see that AP Eagers is going to be a significant company that is actually at the leading edge of all of these changes”.

Source: Go Auto News – Eagers reveals future ‘hybrid dealership’ model

6 Mar 2019