Successful opening night for Bowater Honda comes with a nice surprise.
A beautiful night and a stunning new showroom brought the crowds to our opening event.
Thursday the 27th February 2014 was a very significant evening for Bowater Honda. It was on this wondefully fine night we held the opening event for the newly refurbished showroom on Achilles Ave that we are so very proud of.
The guests enjoying some fine Waimea Estates wine as served by Martin Carrington, the Waimea Sales & Marketing Manager
What surprised and delighted us was the amazing turnout by locals to attend this event. In all between 225 - 250 people came along to show their support, enjoy our hospitality and get a wee surprise themselves. We were very lucky have Murray Selby along, he is the Executive General Manager of Honda New Zealand and he bought with him a very special treat. Bowater Honda was the first Honda showroom in New Zealand to unveil the fantastic new assessment vehicle, the Honda N One - a jazzy wee urban car that is both very fuel efficient and also very very stylish, roomy and technologically advanced.
We were a little surprised ourselves by the almost overwhelming numbers of locals that turned up to show their support for our newly relocated showroom. The line stretched right out the door and snaked along the footpath at one stage! Apologies to any that had to wait in the late afternoon sun a little too long.
Some of the guests eager to get inside to enjoy our hospitality and take a look at the new showroom.
The team at Bowater Honda have been looking forward to this event and making it all official, as they began the move into the new showroom at the start of the New Year. These days it is not as simple as driving a whole room full of cars up the road to the new place - now there is a whole plethora of technical bits that need to go on behind the scenes to make sure that the data systems remain intact and functioning at all times during the transition.
We also took the opportunity to future proof the new building during the renovation and have installed great new customer features such as complementary Wi-Fi and a large flatscreen to access the internet through.
We had some great support for our opening event with Waimea Estates Wine coming along with Martin Carrington, their Sales & Marketing Manager, in the showroom to serve up their great wines and let our guests know a little more about what delights they were enjoying.
Martin pours a glass for Peter Millward, CEO of the Nelson Provincial Museum.
McCashins Brewery also helped us out with some very generous support of Stoke Beer, which went down a treat, along with some tasty morsels from our new neighbours at Blinc Catering.
All in all the guests all seemed to have a lovely time, chatting with our friendly team and enjoying our hospitality.
Jason Park (BNZ) enjoys a nice cold Stoke Beer with David Kerr & Hudson Dodd (Brook Waimarama Sanctuary)
Take a moment to scroll some of the photos from the evening.
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- Elizabeth & Terry Westenra and Jim & Barbara Burbury with Nick D'Evereux
- Adam Sweeting & Phillip Pattison from Mediaworks with stylist Judy Crowe
- Chris Bowater, CEO of Bowater Honda, addresses the crowd
- The guests listen to our welcome speeches
- Murray Selby, Executive GM of Honda NZ
- Andrea & Bryan Hamilton
- The yet to be released assessment vehicle the Honda N One is unveiled
- There seemed to be plenty of interest in the Honda N One
- Murray Selby presents the winner of a very elegant Honda Leather Overnight Bag
- Nick D'Evereux, Sales Manager for Bowater Honda thanking everyone for coming
- A car park full of Honda's
- Back inside and the Honda N One certainly gathered a crowd
- Kelly Bowater, Director of BMG, with Mike McElhinney (Wild Tomato) and David Kerr (Brook Sanctuary)
A eagerly awaited part of the evening was the presentation of the prizes for the evening.
Up for grabs was $1,000 worth of Z Gift Cards, along with some top quality Honda merchandise.
- Martin Carrington from Waimea Estates
- Jason Park (BNZ) with David Kerr & Hudson Dodd (Brook Sanctuary)
- Murray Selby presents the winners their prizes
- Murray Selby presents the winners their prizes
- Brian Hogg with Maurice Higgs
The Bowaters Story Continues.
Rodney Bowater (Chairman and CEO of Bowater Motor Group) with Murray Selby (Executive GM of Honda NZ) and Chris Bowater (CEO Bowater Honda) with Raymond Bowater and the original business in the background.
The new showroom in Achilles Ave brings the Bowater Motor Group almost full circle, as the new Bowater Honda dealership is just across the road from where it all started for Raymond Bowater back in 1947.
The Bowater family is now into the 4th generation in the business, and is going from strength to strength. 2014 will be an exciting year of development as the Honda has moved into a new showroom and shortly the Hyundai / Isuzu franchises will also move into the newly rennovated showroom on the corner of Rutherford & Hardy Streets.
In closing, we wish to say a big thank you to everyone that came along to our opening, and to the generous support of Honda NZ, Waimea Estates Wine, McCashins Brewery and Blinc Caterers. See you in the showroom soon!