Denmac Ford closing today.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Yes the old owner still has it. He still owns the real estate.

[SEZ213]

Wasn't the administration paperwork saying something about Leaseholds?

I'm confused, if he owns that, it's going to have to be sold to cover debts?

[Donny]

I wonder whether blowback from poor customer service from Ford towards customers on some of their products is part of the reason some of these dealerships are going down or hurting so bad..

I know their franchised, but you gotta wonder whether if Ford treated its customers who were having legitimate difficulties better, as to whether sales and interest in their product would be stronger..

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by Sezzy

Wasn't the administration paperwork saying something about Leaseholds?

I'm confused, if he owns that, it's going to have to be sold to cover debts?

Old owner as in the guy who started denmac. He sold the ford franchise many years ago but kept the real estate at darra.

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by Donny

I wonder whether blowback from poor customer service from Ford towards customers on some of their products is part of the reason some of these dealerships are going down or hurting so bad..

I know their franchised, but you gotta wonder whether if Ford treated its customers who were having legitimate difficulties better, as to whether sales and interest in their product would be stronger..

I think the dealers do get done over in that regard. They also don't get paid enough to cover the work done under warranty either. I know from a chat with one dealer principal that Ford cut the hours for many jobs at least twice in the last ten years.

A good dealer who fixes cars first time, starts loosing money when people who purchase cars from other dealers hear about it and take their cars to them for warranty. They are effectively punished for looking after Ford customers.

On the other side of the coin, there are a few dealers Ford should get rid of to help protect the brands reputation and leave enough work for the ones trying to make a good go of it. Really sales and service should be separate franchises.

Whatever way you look at it, Ford Australia haven't seen customer satisfaction as a priority and everyone from customer to dealer ultimately suffers because of it.

Dan

[SteveJH]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Employees, suppliers and even customers that have paid deposits are all considered unsecured creditors.

I would have thought they were first in line.

[Maggot]

Originally Posted by Dave_au

Well are there employee entitlements owing?

You do realise employees also are priority creditors in any insolvency administration (although secured creditors will jump ahead with what are called "fixed charge assets").

Priority in the real world is.

-the business undertakers/the secured creditors
-the business undertakers then take whatever scraps are left

-the employees get their money in 6-9 months from the government
-the other creditors get nothing unless they are game enough to group up and vote the administrators out, or accept an early offer.

No matter what they tell you as an employee, you have no right to any of the money over and above the banks and the admins.

the failure of Ansett years ago led to legislation that pays people now.. but it takes months.

[tornado20]

bit of a shock i've bought my last 3 fpv's from them, my last just 4 months ago.I know Steel and all the giuys there i've found them great to deal with great service and not pushy like other dealers are. very sad i hope it all works out. i don't want to find another dealer i've been to most in brisbane and denmac is or was the best by large margin.

[Supercharged]

Originally Posted by SteveJH

I would have thought they were first in line.

Receiver would be looking to complete sales so deposits may be OK but maybe not because who will do pre-delivery and all that if there are no employees.

[ray38l]

I feel sorry for the workers. Workers payout rights should be considered before any other creditors.
The company my brother worked for went into receivership. That was 5 years ago and none of the workers have seen a cent, although his case was a lot more complicated because the owner was overseas when it was forced to go under and he decided to go missing rather then face his responsibilities. But still workers should be the first in line for what's owed.
Hopefully someone takes over the dealership and the workers get looked after in this case.

[Road Games]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

Absolutely no need for that Darren. Once off leaves a sour taste in everyone's mouth for sure but let bygones be bygones. Holding a grudge leaves one man bitter.

Slightly off topic, what happened to your Repco job?

Way behind the flow of traffic for sure.. but yeah 'm still on call and have been for 5 x weeks... Dad did want that G6ET...

I will grow with my indecisions and my dad will buy whatever he wants, not what i suggest to him !!

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by Sezzy

It's the one owner though, right?

I saw the article about the floods, but I think for it to be coming out now, this would have been an issue months before the floods hit...?

I hope that someone does buy it, and the workers aren't too hard done by as a result of the news - I certainly wouldn't want to be in their shoes...

I doubt the floods had too much to do with it, Denmac Indooroopilly was closed and is now an Audi dealership. This occurred quite a few months ago and probably before the floods, that area was not even affected by the floods. The Darra site would have lost business for a few days, perhaps a week during the floods but no flood damage was sustained.

I think it is more of a sign of tough times, too many eggs in one basket being a single manufacturer franchise. I guess people like me have not helped, we have previously bought 3 cars from Denmac, all FPV but times have changed and we have moved away from Ford for a number of reasons. Out of respect to the employees at Denmac I will not go into it but lets just say it is a combination of service centre experiences, experience of Ford itself and product quality that has caused this change. I know we are not alone on this one.

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by Donny

I wonder whether blowback from poor customer service from Ford towards customers on some of their products is part of the reason some of these dealerships are going down or hurting so bad..

I know their franchised, but you gotta wonder whether if Ford treated its customers who were having legitimate difficulties better, as to whether sales and interest in their product would be stronger..

Absolutely. We had a number of occasions where when trying to get warranty work done Ford would not approve it, then when we rang Ford CRC they said the issue is with the dealer and we should find another one. On one occasion we did go to 3 different dealers which all had the warranty request denied by Ford but the CRC still claimed it was a dealer problem and that they have no control over the dealers. That was for the clunking diff on our Super Pursuit, 4th dealer and a very nasty phone call to the CRC reminding them that we were on FPV number 2 in 2 years and they finally approved the warranty.

In my experience Ford often blame the dealers, the dealers hands are tied and the customer gets frustrated. The end result is the customer buys elsewhere and the dealers are the first to suffer. A sign of how things are going is look around and count the number of Coyote FPV's you see (not many), now think back to the days of the BA/BF GT's, they were actually quite common.

Things are not well for Ford due to the decline of large cars and Denmac closing is probably just one of the signs of that, I would not be surprised to see some more follow.

[flappist]

The goss around the water cooler is that the Bremmer building was the straw.......

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by flappist

The goss around the water cooler is that the Bremmer building was the straw.......

Did that one sustain flood damage?

The writing has been on the wall for a long time, Indooroopilly closing and then Moorooka folding a few weeks ago as well is probably clear indication of that.

In SE QLD it appears that Ford dealers have been struggling for some time, the Ford dealer closed in South Brisbane a few years ago and is now only a service centre for Metro Ford.

[SEZ213]

Nope, Bremer didn't flood, however, there is a lot of roadwork going on right next door, they're building a road out to meet the Warrego (from memory). It's a tiny dealership, maybe forty cars (if that), half of that would be second hand, easy.

The road work has blocked off a lot of parking space they had out the front, and it's a struggle to get out of there. We got the FG serviced there twice, $200 more expensive than Pac Ford for the same process.

In saying that, there was always a lot of staff at Bremer - probably over staffed for the requirements of the business, very rarely did I see customers parked out the front, even on Saturdays.

[samsy351]

What a shame..my GT was from there. I got some dealer stickers posted to me just a few months ago :(

[Burnout]

Yes, it's tough!
Lost my local dealer, so to speak. Used to get the Ute serviced there. the Spares Manager was a nice bloke & supplied good service for me.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Bremer site cost alot of money to rent. With only 40 cars there it was hard to cover the 60k rent bill each month.

[Yaw]

Does anyone actually know what the story is with a group which has at least always appeared to be successful is. I have live in Brisbane my entire life.
I have always heard good things about Denmac. Now if you told me Byrne Ford had gone under, I could understand. They are 5 minutes walk from where I live and I deal with Torque Ford At NorthLakes Or Strathpine to ensure I stay away from Byrne.

[Scott]

Deloitte appointed Receivers and Managers of Denmac Ford Group

Originally Posted by Deloitte.com

19 May 2011: Receivers and Managers from Deloitte have been appointed to Western Brisbane car dealership businesses Denmac Ford Pty Ltd and Bremer Ford Pty Ltd. Richard Hughes and John Greig were appointed from the Queensland office of Deloitte.

Denmac Ford Pty Ltd has three sites with its head office, sales, service and parts located at 2580 Ipswich Road, Darra. The other two showrooms are in Indooroopilly (34 Coonan Street) and Moorooka (1029 Ipswich Road).

Bremer Ford Pty Ltd offers sales, service and parts from its 36 Brisbane Road, Ebbw Vale location. The group has a turnover of in excess of $100m per annum and currently employs approximately 120 people.

Commenting on the appointment Deloitte partner and Joint Receiver Richard Hughes said: “The Denmac Group is a large and well respected operation. Although it is still very early in the process we are planning to continue to operate the business in co-operation with the director, staff and existing creditors.”

“We believe there will be significant interest in the business and we are working hard to re-establish the business as we investigate the best way to realise value for the benefit of the stakeholders.”

“Whilst we are yet to form a final view on the reasons for the appointment, the recent flooding in Brisbane has hurt sales in the first quarter of this year.”

“The initial tasks of the receivers include re-establishing supply and customer relationships, and working with the staff of the group to trade the business, whilst a sale program is initiated,” said Mr Hughes.

Denmac Ford has been an established Ford dealer in Brisbane for over 30 years, servicing Brisbane’s south western suburbs with sales and service locations at Darra and a used car sales location at Moorooka.

Any enquiries from creditors, trading and operational issues should be referred to the receivers.

Creditor enquiries: Ben Chesters
Deloitte Corporate Reorganisation
Tel : +61 7 3308 7000
Email
Last Updated: Thursday, May 19, 2011

[jpd80]

Food for thought, dealerships exist to service cars and sell spare parts,
they make very little off the sale of new cars.....

It's not floods or poor car sales that put a dealership on the rack,
it's service and spare parts customers abandoning them.
If that happens, going out if business is inevitable.

[BongoKongo]

The Denmac group was Fords biggest selling retail dealer in 2004, 2005, & 2006 & it was stated as recently as Jan 2011 that the company supposedly had a turnover of $100 million a year.
IMO the floods weren't the problem, it was management. Everyone else seems to be doing fine & having record sales & some of them actually went under water.
I have found Bremer ford phone staff to be rude & arrogant and the same goes for Denmac at Darra. Some of their Spare Parts staff where atrociously rude at times.
I used to work at Denmac (Darra) a few years ago & the writing was already on the wall back then. You cannot continue to treat people badly & expect them to keep coming back. I am sorry for the people who lost/will loose their jobs but I am not sorry to see that this particular business finally got cleaned up & sorted out, even if it did take the drastic move of going into receivership to finally do it

Maybe, finally Ford Australia will get off its "High Horse" & learn a lesson from this. They should loose their arrogance & put more put more time & money into customers service and educate their staff on how to treat people.
In any case, it may be too little too late because I believe the horse has already bolted for Ford Australia & that this is only the beginning.

[2011G6E]

Must be a few dealers foundering...the Ford dealer at Emerald has closed with a total lack of fanfare...one guy here who bought a new fourbie from there a couple of months back didn't find out about it until he tried to ring to arrange a service and kept getting "The number you have dialled is disconnected". Only after ringing the Ford dealer in Rockhampton did he find out it had closed.
So now we face a 180km drive to the nearest dealer instead of just under 100. One of the drawbacks of living in the bush I suppose.

You'd think a major brand long established dealer closing would have been bigger news outside of the city it was based.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Must be a few dealers foundering...the Ford dealer at Emerald has closed with a total lack of fanfare...one guy here who bought a new fourbie from there a couple of months back didn't find out about it until he tried to ring to arrange a service and kept getting "The number you have dialled is disconnected". Only after ringing the Ford dealer in Rockhampton did he find out it had closed.
So now we face a 180km drive to the nearest dealer instead of just under 100. One of the drawbacks of living in the bush I suppose.

You'd think a major brand long established dealer closing would have been bigger news outside of the city it was based.

That is actually a LOT for worrying than it first appears. Emerald is a central mine city and if they are running into problems then it looks even worse for the rest.

[ieatsports_cars]

iam suprised russel bates ford in maryborough and hervey bay has'nt closed it's doors !

[flappist]

Originally Posted by ieatsports_cars

iam suprised russel bates ford in maryborough and hervey bay has'nt closed it's doors !

They are actually doing quite well.

[BrisVegas]

Sad to see Denmac go. I bought two new cars from them in the past 4 years and got some of my servicing done there. There were prepared to haggle on servicing costs, which was appreciated. Gary, my sales guy was very decent, as were the service folks I dealt with.

I was planning to buy my next new car from them too....

[tornado20]

Originally Posted by BrisVegas

Sad to see Denmac go. I bought two new cars from them in the past 4 years and got some of my servicing done there. There were prepared to haggle on servicing costs, which was appreciated. Gary, my sales guy was very decent, as were the service folks I dealt with.

I was planning to buy my next new car from them too....

denmac is still trading they have been taking over under the byran byrt group. went past there the other day, signs out the front saying welcome to the new denmac ford........not sure who is left there though

[Martyvan]

Dont know who took over.... but my old man just got a call from them to say they are back in business and fully operational!!!!