Local Holden dealer Gaukrogers has said the writing was on the wall for sometime, ahead of this week's news that Holden cars would no longer be manufactured.
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F Gaukroger and Sons dealer principal Mark Palmer took to the 'Gaukrogers Inverell' Facebook page saying the news that General Motors retiring the Holden brand was not "completely unexpected" with Holden vehicles making up less than one in four of their new car sales.
He said F Gaukroger and Sons had a long history with Holden, being an inaugural dealer of the brand since 1948. However, the business has not always been as such. Established in 1912, Gaukrogers started as a sub-agent for McBeans selling Model T Fords.
"Is it a sad day for F Gaukroger and Sons given our history of 72 years with Holden? Yes. For me personally, having never worked a day anywhere else since before I left school, it is more than that.
"I have been at Gaukrogers, and Holden, longer than I've been with my wife. 39 years. Is it a fatal day? Not at all. Why? Because we have Nissan, Mazda and Hyundai and you can be certain, more to come," he wrote on the post.
Over the years, the business has held other franchises including Chevrolet, Rugby, Subaru, VW, Audi, Isuzu light trucks and even Daewoo. Up until the mid 2000's Holden has been Gaukrogers' leading brand.
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"Fast forward to today and it makes up less than a quarter of our new car sales amongst our other brands and less than 20 per cent of our total new and used sales. At Holdens height in my time at the dealership we had held a market share of over 30 per cent in the Inverell district.
"In Frank Gaukroger's time during the 1960s and 1970s it was over 50 per cent. Just look at any old photo of Byron or Otho Street and count them. For the 2019 year it was 10 per cent," Mr Palmer wrote.
Local Holden customers can be assured that every warranty, service campaign, future recalls, if any, and all guaranteed future buybacks will be honoured for a minimum of 10 years.
Mr Palmer also made clear the retirement would not affect the local team explaining that "if we are not selling Holden we will be selling something else like another brand we have or another brand we are yet to get."
"The biggest responsibility I have as Dealer Principal is protecting our business. To do that I have to look after our two greatest assets, you our customers and our team. Without either we don't have a business. Brands may come and go, and despite our long association, Holden is just that, one of our brands.
"However our future has and always will be our customers and our people that serve them. No one can change that.To all our past and present customers I say this. One of our brands are retiring but F Gaukroger and Sons and all of its people are going nowhere.
"Our ad starts with "We've been selling cars for a lot of years....". I can assure you that we'll be doing it for a lot longer yet," he wrote.
