Maxwell Motors will not renew BMW franchise

DonJose

38 people are to lose their jobs as Maxwell Motors in Blackrock Co Dublin has decided not to renew its BMW franchise.

Maxwell Motors managing director Charlie Day said the decision was made in the light of the conditions set down by BMW for such a renewal.

The franchise deal with BMW was for new BMW marque and new Mini marque cars. Maxwell Motors will continue to sell these second-hand.

Though the development means the company is making half its staff redundant, the company will continue to trade and will sell a wider variety of cars in future.

Mr Day said the decisions were difficult. He said the board's view of the economy over the next few years was pessimistic.

'The hardest decision of all has been the making redundant of over half our current staff. Some of this team have 30 years and more service with the company and it is naturally with great sadness that the board made its decision,' he said.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/0729/cars.html

R.O.R

Rumours abound that they aren't the only Dublin BMW dealership who may no longer be trading in the near future.......

Gandalf23

Apparently there has been alot of infighting between senior management at Maxwells which involved solicitors and was getting very nasty and out of control.

From the Herald Wednesday July 09 2008 ...


BMW dealer in bullying claim settles out of court

By Kevin Doyle

A FORMER managing director of a BMW dealership who accused his employers of bullying him before he was fired has made a financial settlement out of court.

James Hennessy alleged that he was "bullied and harassed" when he worked at Maxwell Motors in Blackrock.

He had been an employee at the company for more than 30 years when an independent report recommended his dismissal in November last year.

HEARING

However, on the second day of a hearing before the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the two parties agreed to a settlement.

The exact terms of the settlement will remain confidential, but it was confirmed that the agreement was reached on "amicable" terms.

As part of the arrangement, Mr Hennessy is also to drop proceedings he had taken against the company in the High Court.

The settlement was reached after sales director Patrick Sweeney was being cross examined by Michael Howard, counsel for Mr Hennessy.

Earlier, under questioning from counsel for Maxwell Motors, Mr Sweeney had said he did not believe the former MD was being bullied at board meetings but rather was unable or unwilling to answer questions about his running of the company.

He said that he found Mr Hennessy's inability to answer certain questions as "cringe-making".

"I wouldn't refer to it as bullying at all. Perhaps it was different to the way things were asked under Charles Day Snr (the pervious managing director).

"Perhaps it was a more robust style," Mr Sweeney told the tribunal.

Mr Hennessy, who had worked with Maxwell Motors since 1974, had claimed he was unfairly dismissed from his position in November 2007.

It was claimed that the dismissal followed recommendations contained in an independent report into management practices at the company.

The company denied that any bullying or harassment had taken place.

Gandalf23

R.O.R wrote: »

Rumours abound that they aren't the only Dublin BMW dealership who may no longer be trading in the near future.......

do tell ...

Fozzie Bear

Barry Motors in Galway have also given up/lost their BMW & Mini dealership. Tom Hogan motors have taken it on now for Galway city.

lynchie

R.O.R wrote: »

Rumours abound that they aren't the only Dublin BMW dealership who may no longer be trading in the near future.......

hmmm.. I've heard rumours too about another quite popular Dublin based BMW dealer that is in a lot of trouble.. I've had two people mention that to me now.. Wonder how true it really is...

R.O.R

lynchie wrote: »

hmmm.. I've heard rumours too about another quite popular Dublin based BMW dealer that is in a lot of trouble.. I've had two people mention that to me now.. Wonder how true it really is...

Not sure where it started. My reliable source in BMW is trying to play it down so until something more concrete comes through the grapevine I'm not posting any more details.

Seth Brundle

Gandalf23 wrote: »

do tell ...

The rumourmill is suggesting that Joe Duffys are getting axed. There is absolutely nothing to back the allegation up though!

pburns

What the deal?

You'd think a BMW dealership aboove all would be a licence to print money I mean they were at no. 3 in the manufacturers list of cars sold in the first week of July... They have a range of low-CO2 cars that are perfectly suitable to our new tax system. I would expect Mercedes dealers to be in choppy waters right now but Bimmer dealers?

Has this something to do with BMW taking over as distributers and weeding out the chaff? What am I missing?

On a related subject - I heard today that a certain high profile VW/Audi/Merc dealer is also in trouble.

alpina

What's the main gripe behind all these garages walking away or being pushed?
Independant garage for BMW & another for Mini?
Unacceptable management, targets, idiotic business plans?

At a time when the marquee is flying high as a result of 'being on the ball' with Co2 emissions etc, this negative publicity is really ill timed...
Those who have lost employment as a result that's the real shame when BMW are possibly about to have some of their best annual sales figures as a result of the Irish Co2 system....

TomMc

The thing about say Duffy's & McKeons for example which might suggest something like this may possibly happen in the future, is that in more recent times they have added other marques to their portfolios, when in the past they had little or no interest beyond BMW.

Management can change and so general direction of a company. Then in todays marketplace it is probably best to have a slice of many pies as well, prestige and mainstream market. So we will have to wait and see. The one thing in all this is that many dealers can no longer take things for granted and get complacent, now with car manufacturers themselves taking a more progressive role in the sales market. A welcome change from poverty spec cars, cartels, price fixing and all that.

agent_smith

My well placed source (for what its worth) has told me that Joe Duffy's is definately going to be getting a lot smaller soon.
Duffys is in an unenviable position of having a huge amount of stock sitting on its forecourt.
Further rumor is that the motorrad division is moving from its current place in duffys.

TheDriver

TO add to this, there is widespread rumours here in Cork that one of the BMW dealerships is loosing the dealership from January and just one look at their showroom has it looking much different from the usual ones (older smaller bmw, old days) while other rumours state its because he wouldn't take on motorad.
Think BMW is copperfastening their network by ensuring all dealers are playing ball and now is the time they can insist on certain showroom conditions etc

ninty9er

Heard a similar story in Limerick, targets were the issue apparently. Can't see it being true though.

TheDriver

me neither as the dealership in Cork has always sold a fair share of beemers, people still driving out of the showroom with new stuff instead of going to the fancier looking dealership in the city!

CharlieCroker

TheDriver wrote: »

me neither as the dealership in Cork has always sold a fair share of beemers, people still driving out of the showroom with new stuff instead of going to the fancier looking dealership in the city!

A lot smaller percentage than whhats coming out of Keary's though. that was the final nail in the coffin

copacetic

wonder why this took so long to hit the news?

Everyone knew they were losing franchis for months and that they were letting staff go for the last couple of weeks:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055285448&highlight=maxwell+motors

E92

It's fairly common knowledge at this stage that Kevin O'Leary is losing the BMW/MINI franchise in Cork.

Considering the reputation Joe Duffys have I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if they are the other dealer to part company with BMW in Dublin. I have nothing to suggest that this is true though other than hearing it as a rumour several times.

Personally I'm disappointed that KO'L lost the BMW franchise if for no other reason than that I feel it is good for competition and the consumer to have competing dealerships near each other. I would hope that BMW will appoint a second dealer other than Kearys for Cork, for precisely those reasons.

All that said, I'd rather fewer good dealers than several mediocre/bad ones letting down BMW/MINI.

Could a mod please edit the incorrect title, as Maxwell did not lose the franchise, but rather chose to hand it back to BMW as well?

pburns wrote: »

You'd think a BMW dealership aboove all would be a licence to print money I mean they were at no. 3 in the manufacturers list of cars sold in the first week of July... They have a range of low-CO2 cars that are perfectly suitable to our new tax system. I would expect Mercedes dealers to be in choppy waters right now but Bimmer dealers?

They've also had to stock a LOAD of cars for 6 months that should have gone out in January, but went out in July as a result of the changes. Yes they're doing very well at the moment but they were down by 33% up to the end of June, and had all that excess stock because of people deferring their new BMWs to take advantage of the VRT changes. And the cheaper new ones means they'll have had to just knock off several thousand on some cars, just at the drop of a whim(though some are still in dreamland and still selling cars for ridiculously high prices).

pburns wrote: »

Has this something to do with BMW taking over as distributers and weeding out the chaff? What am I missing?

On a related subject - I heard today that a certain high profile VW/Audi/Merc dealer is also in trouble.

That would be Turners Cross motors in Cork I'm guessing, there have been ads locally about VAG looking for a new VW and Audi dealer(though I'm not aware of anything happening with Merc).

Dealers that are not up to scratch will lose the BMW franchise.

It is interesting to note that BMW have been giving the franchises to dealers that sell Toyota/Lexus. The 2 brands have a reputation for being amongst the best customer service, so hopefully that will transfer to BMW/MINI as well.

niceirishfella

I hear Capital Cars in Tullamore is losing/or handing their franchise back too.

Therefore, there is no main BMW dealer in the midlands.
The nearest would be Conlons in Rathangan.

oilsheik

There is a new BMWdealer for the Midlands Colm Quinn Blyry Retail Park, Athlone.

preilly79

kbannon wrote: »

The rumourmill is suggesting that Joe Duffys are getting axed. There is absolutely nothing to back the allegation up though!

My brother in the trade mentioned this also. Something to do with the amount tied up in second hand cars on the lot that they're unable to sell?

Seth Brundle

Most dealers have loads of used cars though - its down to the fact that we had a changeover in tax regeime. Also JDs or other dealers don't take in used cars without selling either another used car or more likely a new car.

copacetic

kbannon wrote: »

Most dealers have loads of used cars though - its down to the fact that we had a changeover in tax regeime. Also JDs or other dealers don't take in used cars without selling either another used car or more likely a new car.

most of joe duffys stock still seem about 5-10k overpriced. no way they can sell them at those prices. possibly their margins are so low they can't afford to reprice them properly to sell but they are just postponing the inevitable imo.

Seth Brundle

IMO there was a nice clique between BMW Irl and JDs which I was led to believe was quite strong so Im inclined to not believe the rumour.
However, IMO its no loss! I never found a member of staff in there that seemed happy to have a customer walk in the door.

agent_smith

The closure of all these dealerships will do more than hit the number of bmw's that are sold, it will likely impact the residual values of new and second hand BMW's.
BMW warranties are only held if regular scheduled servicing takes place with authorised parts by authorised mechanics. Like was mentioned earlier, what will happen to those that have purchased beemers in the midlands, when a trip to dublin or cork means a days holidays.... i know it would put me off buying a new or second hand bmw.

E92

agent_smith wrote: »

Like was mentioned earlier, what will happen to those that have purchased beemers in the midlands, when a trip to dublin or cork means a days holidays.... i know it would put me off buying a new or second hand bmw.

Colm Quinn has been appointed in Athlone replacing Capital Cars, they are already open for business, and BMW will be making further announcements about new dealers as the axe falls for others "in due course" to quote BMW. Athlone is 40 minutes or 23 miles away according to the AA's routeplanner.

R.O.R

agent_smith wrote: »

The closure of all these dealerships will do more than hit the number of bmw's that are sold, it will likely impact the residual values of new and second hand BMW's.
BMW warranties are only held if regular scheduled servicing takes place with authorised parts by authorised mechanics. Like was mentioned earlier, what will happen to those that have purchased beemers in the midlands, when a trip to dublin or cork means a days holidays.... i know it would put me off buying a new or second hand bmw.

I know for definite the Kevin O'Leary's are staying on as an official BMW service agent, whether the other dealers who have lost their franchises are I don't know. I'm not sure there will be enough people left in Maxwells to carry on servicing cars.

To add to the rumours, Maxwells may be going Italian.......

Hellrazer

From my source in Maxwells
Maxwells wont be doing servicing at all of any franchise.They`re not getting another marque and theyre becoming a used/new multi franchise dealer of "top end brands"
All service work will be outsourced hence most of the job losses are in aftersales.


From what Ive heard the reasons for them and other BMW dealers losing their franchises are due to huge demands from BMW regarding showrooms etc.(BMW wanted a couple of the dealers to spend millions of euro on new buildings etc)
Theres 9 dealers(I think--it may be 7) involved in an ongoing dispute with BMW who may be losing their BMW franchise in the next few weeks.

Regarding Joe Duffys--Rumours are the banks are running the place now.

As for the rest of the Job losses in the motortrade this year--In Airside there has been 60+ job losses so far and a few of the dealers are working week on/week off basis and/or 3 day weeks for their aftersales staff.Some of the dealers have given up some of their franchises.
A major Seat dealer on the southside let go 12 staff two weeks ago.And theres more on the way in other dealers around Dublin.

The motortrade is fooked this year and if something drastic doesnt happen in January theres going to be a lot of dealers going to the wall.

Zube

E92 wrote: »

Athlone is 40 minutes or 23 miles away [from Tullamore] according to the AA's routeplanner.

Since the M6 opened, 30-40 minutes.

Ice_Box

The exchange rate with sterling has hit them hard. No one in their right mind would buy a used car in the republic when you can save thousands by going up north or london.

RedorDead

Hellrazer wrote: »

From my source in Maxwells
Maxwells wont be doing servicing at all of any franchise.They`re not getting another marque and theyre becoming a used/new multi franchise dealer of "top end brands"

Probably not much money in that area either. Saw this on a website yesterday about Orwell Motors.

Luxury car dealer, Orwell Motors in Walkinstown, Dublin has been put into receivership. Bank of Scotland (Ireland) stepped in last week and appointed Grant Thornton as receiver in a bid to recoup in the region of €750,000 that it is owed.

It is understood that Orwell Motors got into trading difficulties when the luxury used car market collapsed in the first half of the year.