Ebbett’s big move
As the Ebbett Group prepares to move its Volkswagen and Audi dealerships to new Hamilton East premises in November 2015, dealer principal Richard van den Engel explains the group’s bold move away from the more traditional car sales environment to an urban high street retail experience.
After outgrowing the current multifranchise site on the corner of Anglesea and Thackeray Streets, Hamilton, Ebbett started to look for an alternative.
“Te Rapa was the safe choice,” Richard explains. “But it felt like a bulk retail experience and we wanted to give customers a unique branded experience with an urban High Street environment.”
The resulting Hamilton East site, on the corner of Clyde Street and Grey Street will have two separate showrooms, one dedicated to Audi and one dedicated to Volkswagen. Each area will have its own team of brand experts, and the showrooms will be right up to the street front, just like a high street shop.
“There’s no second hand car yard to walk through to get to the new cars,” says Richard. “The cars will be on display behind huge windows, right there as you walk by the showroom.”
The Ebbett Volkswagen experience is on Grey Street and the Ebbett Audi experience is on Clyde Street. The two showrooms are separated by a plaza area, which will be home to a café, Osten –German for East, tying in with the German cars sold and the new location of Hamilton East
Ebbett is keen to reconnect Volkswagen, translated from German as “the people’s car”, to the New Zealand people, breaking the myth that it is an expensive European car with high upkeep costs.
“Volkswagen is the world’s biggest selling carmaker and Volkswagen cars are just as affordable to buy and service as their Japanese competitors.”
Volkswagen customers will enter a showroom clad in light natural timber, and an informal, relaxed, family friendly atmosphere
Audi, well known as an exclusive, hi-tech, luxury experience, will ensure customers are wowed with a pseudo racetrack environment, and cars shown off in a starting grid formation.
There is plenty of off-street customer parking, plus an area for high quality second hand vehicles, all of which will have had an extensive 45 point check.
At the back of the site there is a spacious workshop area so customers can enjoy the café in the plaza as they wait.