Entrepreneurs’ legacy part of Komani history
At one stage, Harvey had more than 30 businesses
Queen Motor Spares, established in 1972 by Wayne and Lorna Harvey, has grown from strength to strength over the years.
When the Harveys started the now wellestablished business, they had one shop, which they grew over the years.
In the 1980s, while Greg Harvey was still at university, he and Wayne made the decision to open up another Midas Parts.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and serving two years in the military, Greg joined Wayne in the running of the business towards the end of 1988.
The next five years saw them expanding, with multiple branches established throughout the Eastern Cape.
In 1993, after negotiations with Midas head office, Greg and Wayne sold all of their branches to the Midas franchise, barring the flagship store in Komani.
Part of the agreement with Midas entailed Greg working for Midas for two weeks every
month. Greg soon found the corporate rules and regulations did not suit his entrepreneurial spirit, and resigned from this contract with Midas after 18 months.
In the interim, the profits from the sale of the branches to Midas were used to purchase a Nissan and Toyota dealership.
With the dealerships’ continued growth, Greg expanded and acquired a Hyundai franchise, with the business growing substantially from there.
Within two years of Greg leaving Midas, he re-acquired all of the shops he and Wayne had sold to the franchise.
Midas sold the shops because they were no longer profitable under their management. Greg and Wayne owned the buildings where these shops were based. Motorcycle dealerships with brands such as Kawasaki, Suzuki, Honda and eventually KTM were opened thereafter.
At one stage, Greg had more than 30 businesses all over the Eastern Cape.
Over the next five years, many of the less profitable branches were closed. This allowed Greg to focus his resources on his most profitable branches, resulting in a drastic increase in profitability.
In 2002, Greg acquired his first game farm and bought several more thereafter.
In recent years, his focus has been to find a balance between running his game farms and the Queen Motor Spares branches.
This has resulted in the sale of the car dealerships and downscaling his farming operation. As a result, Greg has been able to focus on exciting new prospects in the parts businesses.
With the help of his sons as a part of his management team Simon Harvey, who will be working on the game farms from 2023 onwards, and Brett Harvey at Queen Motor Spares in 2026, Greg and his sons look forward to growing their businesses further.