Big rift in auto sector:
ASPLINTER group of auto dealers have cut ties with the decadesold Automobile Dealers Association, and formed their own under the banner of the New Car Dealers Association of Jamaica, NCDAJ.
The group, if successful in its intent to go after all new-car dealers as members, could end up hobbling the ADA. More immediately, it jeopardises the biennial ADA car show, a calendar event and a moneymaking venture for the group that is backed by membership and is reliant on their participation to draw prospective car buyers.
The ADA itself is not saying much about the new developments. Chairman Kent LaCroix said he was aware of NCDAJ’s formation, but the ADA had not taken a position on the matter.
“I won’t comment because I am trying to get the details of what this association is planning on doing or what their mandate is,” said LaCroix, who is employed to Stewart’s Automotive Group. “It’s a new association. It has nothing to do with us, although there are members who were members of our association.”
The NCDAJ includes founding members ATL Automotive Group, Kingston Industrial Garage, KIG, and Toyota Jamaica – the three of which have laid claim to nearly two-thirds of the new-car market in Jamaica – as well as and newcomer and truck dealer TankWeld Equipment. They represent brands such as BMW, Mini, Honda, Kia, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche; Jeep, Ford, Subaru; top-seller Toyota along with Daihatsu; and Shacman trucks.
The size of the remaining ADA membership was not immediately available, but it includes
Fidelity Motors representing Nissan; Magna Motors representing Hyundai; and Stewarts Automotive Group, which trades brands such as Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Jaguar/Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, among others.
NCDAJ Deputy Chairman Wayne Cummings says the new group is still setting up operations, but aims to bring all new motor vehicle dealers as well as bike dealers on board as members.
“You’ll start seeing a better picture in a few weeks,” Cummings told the Financial Gleaner after the launch of the association at the Old Hope Road offices of Toyota Jamaica on Wednesday. “We have some administrative things to work out, such as dues structure and so on,” he said.
The split from the ADA comes just
over a year after a public spat erupted between the group and ATL Automotive over the operation of the ADA and claims of a lack of proper planning for the ADA Show that eventually took on a new format in 2017. ATL did not participate in the show.
At one stage, ATL Group CEO Adam Stewart had threatened to take the matter to court, and had indicated from then that the automotive subsidiary would be pulling out of the ADA after 20 years of membership.
Cummings said plans for legal action were dropped; but asked whether the rift with ADA could be healed, he responded negatively to the suggestion.
“No, we don’t think so, and we believe that it has to do structurally with how the ADA was constituted and how it evolved,” he said.
NCDAJ’s founding chairman is John Ralston of Tank-Weld Equipment Limited, a construction-related company that became the dealer for Shacman trucks in January. Deputy Chairman Cummings is also group commercial director of the ATL Automotive Group.
The NCDAJ secretariat will operate from the Old Hope Road branch of Toyota Jamaica, and like the ADA, its operations will be financed by its membership.
Cummings said the three members split from ADA because of concerns that they did not have equal representation within the group, and that in ATL’s case, a request for a revision of the rules was met with resistance.
Under the rules being developed by NCDAJ, the principle of ‘one member, one vote’ will apply, notwithstanding the size of the business, he added, while noting that NCDAJ aims to become the primary voice of Jamaica’s automotive industry.
“We’ve always been in touch with other new-car dealers. They made certain requests of us and we intend to invite them to look at us as the new voice of the new-car dealers,” said the deputy chairman.
The association’s first order of business is the regulatory environment for new-car imports. It aims to engage the Government on the formulation of ‘forward-thinking policies’ relating to import duties, taxes and fees, vehicle safety standards, emissions load on the environment, vehicle electrification and other cutting-edge changes.
Cummings said the more than US$90 million paid annually by dealers for duties, taxes and fees should allow automobile dealers a seat at the table in charting the future of the business in Jamaica.