The new Bowater Hyundai showroom begins to be refurbished.
Nick Marer owner of The Little Pig Building Company inside the old Bowater Honda showroom as work gets underway.
The Bowater Motor Group is wasting no time when it comes to the grand plan of relocating several of it's franchises into freshly refurbished showrooms.
With the move now completed for Bowater Honda from their Rutherford & Hardy Streets showroom up to their newly refurbished showroom in Achilles Ave, work has already begun on shifting Bowater Hyundai.
The next stage of the moves will see Bowater Hyundai move across the road and take up residence in a completely refurbished showroom that will better suit the needs of the rapidly growing Hyundai business, and clear the way for the current Bowater Hyundai building located on Hardy street to be demolished and replaced by a large multi franchise used car yard.
Some of these changes have initially been spurred on by the recent changes to requirements for older buildings in regard to levels of earthquake safety. The current Bowater Hyundai building has already undergone significant earthquake strengthening to ensure the safety of staff and customers in the event of a large earthquake, however in the course of this remedial work a new plan was formed to better suit the requirements of growing businesses, and provide a platform for expansion into the future.
Bowater Hyundai CEO Chris Bowater stated in a Nelson Weekly article recently:
Some would say Bowater Hyundai outgrew that building a year ago so the changes to the requirements around earthquake strengthening gave us the push we needed to move the businesses around. The changes mean we can better accommodate Honda in a more central location and we can upsize our Hyundai operation, which has seen rapid growth over the past few years.
Bowater Hyundai has indeed seen some very rapid growth since it's launch in Nelson back in 2007. Since then the Hyundai brand has gone from relative obscurity to a household name with several of the flagship models such as the Hyundai Santa Fe and the Hyundai ix35 becoming hot sellers and even winning awards, with Hyundai’s latest Santa Fe 4WD winning the New Zealand Company Vehicle magazine’s Business 4WD of the Year award, as well as NZ4WD magazine’s Medium SUV of the year. (click here to see the article)
Sam from Bowater Hyundai couldn't wait to move into the new showroom so he has moved a fleet full of Hyundai iLoad and iMax Vans across the road in preparation of the big move.
The new Hyundai showroom is significantly bigger than the current one and is undergoing the transformation as you read this, with the Honda interior design coming down in preparation to the Hyundai specific fit out in the coming weeks.
The general layout of the building is also getting an overall refresh with some internal walls being shifted with particular attention being paid to the layout of the existing Service Department.
The main central showroom is getting a major overhaul in order to best show off the fluidic details and design of the new range of Hyundai currently takign the world by storm.
We will keep a close eye on the progress and keep you updated as the building changes, so keep checking back as we get closer to moving in.
