Best in the business

Carlin & Gazzard shines at national awards

“We often sell the first car to a client and the service department sells them the second one.”

That is the simple yet hugely successful philosophy of nationally recognised Mount Gambier car dealership Carlin & Gazzard and its principal Peter Gazzard.

Mr Gazzard has just returned from the national Mercedes-Benz 2022 Retailer of the Year event in Melbourne alongside service manager Ben Collins and the dealership returned with a boot full of accolades.

In the prestigious car category, Carlin & Gazzard was named the 2022 Transformation Champion for the Retailer of the Year and was runner up in the MercedesBenz van category for the same honour.

In the grand final of the night, there were four winners and Carlin & Gazzard was the only rural based business recognised in that elite group. “It was a huge honour, a huge night,” Peter said.

“We’ve been thereabouts for the past few years and we honestly went there not expecting much so everyone was really happy for us. It’s one of the most rewarding wins we’ve had.”

And the accolades didn’t stop there with Ben Collins (pictured above centre), who has been with Carlin & Gazzard for six years, snaring the Service Manager of the Year for both cars and vans. The top gongs were a reflection of the strong team at Carlin & Gazzard with both sales and service proving to be leaders under the Mercedes-Benz banner.

Carlin & Gazzard were appointed Mercedes-Benz dealers back in 1997 – an association that happened accidentally but has turned out to be fruitful for both parties.

“We bought the Marian Motors building, which was across the road from our dealershipbecause we needed more room for our cars and in the end it was amazing luck and timing,” Peter said.

“Marian had been a Subaru, VW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz dealer but we weren’t looking to take that on but people started to come in and putting in orders for new Mercedes-Benz and Subarus and we were ringing the factories saying we had sold another car.

“We became Mercedes-Benz dealers by accident and we’ve loved it ever since.”

Carlin & Gazzard is no stranger to Dealer of the Year honours in the Mercedes-Benz stratosphere but previous awards in 1999, just two years into their history as franchisees, who 2001, ’02, ’04 and 2012, which were back when some awards were regionally selected – this month’s accolades were truly national. Repeat business, which has become a key cornerstone of the Carlin & Gazzard business model, has been built on the professional sales team and the award winning service department and the Commercial Street East business has customers from across Australia from all walks of life.

“We have built up very strong connections locally and nationally through our family, friends and loyal clients,” Peter said. “And now our customers recommend us to their family and friends.”

Anecdotally, Mount Gambier is an industry leader in terms of number of Mercedes-Benz vehicles per head of population, proof Carlin & Gazzard has sold the brand as strongly to their own community as they have to their clients across Australia.

Peter said it was also not just Carlin & Gazzard making a name for themselves.

“We have always had such a very strong car industry locally here in Mount Gambier and we appreciate the strong local support that we are lucky enough to get,” Peter said.

Carlin & Gazzard is also kicking goals as leading dealers with their other franchises, including Jeep, RAM, Mitshubishi, Subaru, MG, LDV and Honda.

Ben put his service manager victory down to simply getting the template right and producing consistent results across all brands.

“Consistency is the key – we look after everyone the same,” Ben said.

“If you get your processes right and that stays the same across all brands, then it makes it easier for everyone to do a great job.”

Out of 90 staff in the whole dealership, ore than 35 of those make up the service department with tecnicians, front of house and parts.

“The ongoing support and resilience of the Gazzard family has also been important,” Ben said.

“If you have a passionate and committed team with everyone striving for the same goal, you will have success.”

It was Ben’s first major Mercedes-Benz function and he enjoyed the opportunity to put faces to names and meeting people for the first time.

“It was good to get a bit of insight into what other dealerships are doing,” Ben said.

“Everyone was so happy for us when we won and you can see the support among the dealer network is really good.”

Peter said the Carlin & Gazzard service department was fortunate to be filled with passionate car people.

“So many of our technicians and service staff just love cars,” he said.

“They are into all sorts of race cars, some work on cars at home at the weekend and some are part of Street Machine Club.

We are very lucky with the team we have.”