Family-run car dealership Pembers Motor Group has called it quits after more than 70 years of trading in Russell Vale, near Wollongong. The business had been struggling amid sluggish sales and rising competition.
On July 4 the Miller family closed the doors. “We’ve been working there for so long – I don’t know if shock’s the right word,” Luke Miller told the Illawarra Mercury.
Pembers opened in 1938 and has been operated by the Millers since 1998 as a dealership for cars and caravans, with parts sales and a mechanics workshop. As car sales fell, so did demand for service.
“We have struggled to keep the business going in the last two years and it has become time to draw a line in the sand. We simply couldn’t keep up with the global financial downturn and decrease in vehicle sales Australia-wide,” says the Miller family.
“We encourage everybody to buy local and support the little guys so other businesses can avoid this situation in the future.”
New car sales in Australia rose 2.2% in 2013, based on the records of the 10 highest-selling manufacturers. But profits in the industry have been eroding as increasingly internet-savvy shoppers pit dealership against dealership.
Wollongong’s Corban Automotive dealer principal Michael Corban says profits had been driven as low as $500-$700 on cars that sold for $20,000 or $30,000.
Outside of the luxury market, and with the “enormous” infrastructure and staffing costs associated with running a dealership, it was near impossible to turn a profit, he says. “The old consumers, people like myself, would walk in the door of a store and buy, but today car sales are really about buying online.”
Corban says consumers can buy the same car from 56 dealerships.
“You might be selling a Mitsubishi Lancer and making $1200. One phone call to a dealer up the road can reduce that to $600,” he says.
Pembers is helping its 11 staff to find new jobs.
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