Car czar Martin Roller back in driver’s seat

MARTIN Roller, who sold off his Brisbane-based luxury car company in 2018, is back in the auto business but this time he’s adopting an entirely new business model.

ROLLER’S BACK IN TOWN

BRISBANE auto czar Martin Roller is back in the motor trade business. Roller, who sold his luxury car empire two years ago, is teaming up with old partner Marvin Burke and Melbourne-based Dutton Garage to open a luxury used car centre at 195 Lutwyche Rd, Windsor. Roller says the site, which used to be the home of a Mercedes Benz dealership, has room for 100 cars and features a huge undercover service centre.

Roller, who has been kept busy running a kid’s fitness venture called MyFirstGym with wife Renee, says he has missed the car business and decided to jump back in after the non-compete agreement from the sale of his old business expired.

Martin and Renee Roller.

“It’s what I do well and when I saw the site at Windsor I knew I had to do it,” says Roller, who will employ 15 people when the business Dutton One launches on February 17.

“I have already had friends offer a Bentley and a Ferrari to be sold on consignment, which is good for me as I need the stock.”

Roller says he decided to move into used cars because the new car sector is suffering from declining sales. “We will be selling everything from a $450,000 Ferrari to a $15,000 Toyota,” he says. Roller, who has been in the car game for more than 30 years, took over the city’s BMW dealership in 1999 and grew it five-fold into a $250 million a year colossus with about 250 staff. Roller and Burke, who expanded to include Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Volvo, sold 70 per cent of the business for $85 million in 2014 to Malaysian multinational Sime Darby and offloaded the remaining 30 per cent at the end of 2018.

VIRUS ALERT

YOUR diarist was in Hong Kong during the SARs outbreak of 2002/03 and well remembers the economic chaos the virus, which killed 349 people, caused to great swathes of Asia. Australia was less impacted at the time because not only was the Chinese economy a whole lot smaller but we were less reliant on what is now our biggest trading partner.

ANZ economist David Plank told a Property Council lunch at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) on Friday that the coronavirus currently sweeping China is a much bigger deal than SARS in terms of its economic impact on Australia.

Raynuha Sinnathamby

“The Chinese economy is now ten times bigger than it was during SARS and our exports are seven times what they were,” Plank told the lunch also attended by Springfield City Group managing director Raynuha Sinnathamby, JLL chief executive Stephen Conry and Frasers Property Group boss Rod Fehring.

“Back then, there were no Chinese students coming to Australia but now Chinese students and tourists make up 1 per cent of our GDP,” sayys Plank, who warns that with the border now closed to Chinese visitors, the impact of coronavirus is set to continue.

RETAIL THERAPY

WITH Wallace Bishop exiting Toombul Shopping Centre after more than 50 years, the changing face of our major retail centres was a timely discussion at the Property Council lunch. Springfield City Group’s Raynuha Sinnathamaby says shopping centres are becoming entertainment hubs as much as retail precincts.

Wallace Bishop has shut its Toombul shop after more than 50 years. Photo: Glen Norris

“They have to provide family entertainment otherwise people can sit at their computer and buy online,” says Sinnathamby. Frasers Property Group’s Rod Fehring says the changes coming to shopping centres won’t be all bad with a lot of redevelopment opportunities emerging. “I see lease terms shrinking with perhaps perpetual pop up stores,” says Fehring. “There may be 30 to 40 speciality shops on continuous rotation.”

To see an example of the changing face of retail look no further than the Toombul centre, which opened way back in 1967 with Wallace Bishop one of the original tenants. At the same time as Wallace Bishop closed its outlet, Toombul unveiled what it calls UPSTAIRS, an “urban dining and entertainment experience” that features up to ten new restaurants and bars.