On the drive to brighter future for car dealer
BMW Autohaus Monti owner to shift focus to Volkswagen NTT Group
After 17 years of building the BMW brand in East London, Clarence Mngadi, the owner of BMW Autohaus Monti, is calling it quits with the premium car dealership as he plans growing the Volkswagen NTT Group, where he is a partner.
Mngadi, a former regional salesman for BMW South Africa in Johannesburg, said he had only worked for the company for three years when he decided he was ready to venture out on his own by establishing a dealership.
He was directed to East London to the then BMW City, which was still in Vincent when he took it over.
“It’s time to move on and allow for a new energy to take BMW to the next level in East London. It’s time for it to get a fresh set of dynamic minds and great ideas to grow the company and take it to new heights,” he said.
“If you look at the dealer environment in this day and age, you are more competitive and offer better value to your customers as a group which is why when BMW Supertech wanted to buy, I knew it meant my customers would be in good hands.”
BMW Supertech, a KwaZuluNatal-based company founded in 1983 by Shabir Tayob, the owner of transport and logistics services company, Bakers SA Limited, officially took over BMW Autohaus Monti from March 1.
The family business now comprises of six BMW dealerships.
Mngadi, who became a shareholder of NTT Group in 2009, said he was parting ways with the dealership to focus on his role as partner of NTT Group with Fred Whelpton who founded the company in 1991.
The group comprises of 41 dealerships around the country.
“It has been a remarkable journey with BMW group. I took over the dealership while it was still a very small operation and then I bought six properties that were here and I demolished them to put up the structure that you see standing today. There were lots of negotiations with the municipality too, which saw me buy a portion of the road on 5th Avenue which has been closed off and consolidated as part of the property,” he said.
“I think I was the first in East London to put up a proper structure, long before Ronnies moved to Beacon Bay where they’ve built their state-of-theart facility, but it was good to lead and become a game-changer in the industry at the time,” he said.
Mngadi said none of it would have been possible if it was not for his former employer, BMW South Africa, believing in him and backing him financially.
“I was a regional sales manager before, selling cars for BMW SA and Autohaus Monti was my first business. The opportunity came when I was three years into my job with BMW SA and I wanted to grow and needed a new challenge so I told them I wanted my own dealership.
“BMW City, as it was known then, was looking to sell and BMW SA took me to some courses for training, as I only knew sales and didn’t know much about the whole business aspect. Within a year, they bought the business for me and helped me every step of the way,” he said.
Mngadi said moving to East London was an eye-opening experience for him and moulded him to be the multifaceted businessman he is today.
“They didn’t have to invest in me, I had nothing to give, it was a real gamble, a major risk the company took on me and I will forever be grateful. I made sure I was not going to fail. I was putting extra hours day and night to get a grasp of the business because I didn’t want to fail. Not just because of the franchise, but also for myself and other black people out there, because at the time I was the only black man running a franchise dealership and the pressure was on me to make it work,” he said.
He said he would forever be grateful to the community of East London for their unwavering support and hoped that the same support would be conveyed to the current business owners.
BMW Supertech sales manager and dealer principal Anthony Ellis said they were happy taking over the reins from Mngadi and are ready to serve East London well.
“We’ve taken over the existing staff and we’re all just settling in and getting to know each other. We are looking forward to growing our brand as Supertech because BMW already sells itself,” said Ellis.