Yesterday was the first day Midway Motors, formerly based in Kaikorai Valley Rd, operated from its new premises in Gladstone Rd South.
Managing director Chris Henderson said relocating the business had not been easy and was “emotional”.
He had worked at the old site for 35 years, since he was a child.
“This is pretty huge.
“Forty-five-odd-plus years the building was there, and now it’s going to be something different.
“But that’s change, right?”
His family had owned the dealership since 1980, one year after it opened. He bought it off his father 20 years ago.
He was recently approached by fuel distributor NPD and agreed to lease them the old premises, resulting in the move.
“It wasn’t a decision I took lightly, but it was too good an offer to turn down.
“I had no succession plan, and this has now kind of set me up for the rest of my life.”
The workshop in Kaikorai Valley Rd would be replaced with a self-service station, he said.
He had been a little concerned about shifting from Dunedin to Mosgiel.
He did not expect Midway Motors would get the same level of walk-in customers as it did in the city, until the word got out.
The used car market was “very difficult” at present and it was the right time to be downsizing, he said.
The firm’s overhead costs were now less than half of what they had been, and he hoped to spend less time at the yard as more customers used Midway’s online services.
“We’ve been around a long time and I don’t think you can be around that long if you’re not selling good cars.”
tim.scott@odt.co.nz
