Car dealerships call for more support as they face job losses and closures during pandemic

Hundreds of jobs could be lost as car dealerships across southeast Queensland face a dire future if more support doesn’t come during the coronavirus pandemic.

A DIRE future with potentially thousands of job losses faces car dealerships across southeast Queensland if more government support is not provided during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some dealerships have already let go of staff and other businesses could be just months away from closing with demand for cars dropping with residents struggling financially during the current crisis.

Mark Beitz, who owns and operates Bartons car dealership in Wynnum and Redlands, said there needs to be more support from both the Federal and State Governments for medium to large businesses for them to stay alive.

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“We employ more than 230 people and realistically if there is no additional support, we could also be one of those forced to close in the next month,” he said.

“That’s a lot of job losses. We’re lucky we haven’t had to let many anyone go yet. We have been holding off waiting with only five staff let go at this time being mainly casual and performance.

“Our sales have continued to drop each week and now the decrease in sales is around 45 per cent so we need a lot more help.

“There has been a lot of support for small businesses, which have around three and four people, which is great, there’s nothing wrong with that but what about businesses like ours where we have hundreds of employees and more than 80 per cent are locals.”

Bartons managing director Mark Beitz. Picture: Liam Kidston

Salters Cars, which has used car dealerships at Moorooka, Browns Plains, Indooroopilly and Springwood, as well as service centres at Darra, Toowong and Taringa, say their demand has fallen by 500 per cent.

“There’s been a dramatic, dramatic drop,” marketing and guest experience manager Melissa Fisher said.

The business let go of 60 sales staff last week, with more job losses to come next week. Salters employs more than 300 people.

Mr Beitz said he was confident his business and others like his would survive and believed there was more support coming similar to the wage subsidy recently announced by the Federal Government.

“The changes coming are great however it has been lost on them that support for March is also needed. We will haemorrhage hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses for March because there has been not enough support for the first month of this crisis for businesses our size,” he said.

“It is time to backdate some allowances given to smaller businesses and make them available to larger ones and make the benefits retrospective to when they were announced.

“Also increasing the guaranteed loans available to larger business is important. An example of the $250,000 loans made available to small business does not go far enough when you consider our wage bill for one month is over $1.6 million.

“So in a business such as mine this needs to be seven or eight times the maximum amount currently available. It is all relative to scale and size.”

“It’s all happening really quickly so I expect more support is coming from the government but I think it’s just important to raise the question now so businesses can survive and hopefully without significant job losses.

“I’m hoping there is no devil in the detail but the $1500 fortnightly wage subsidy is absolutely needed to stave off further job losses and business closures.

Mr Beitz had several suggestions to assist stimulating cars sales, which included abolishing stamp duty and registration costs for the next six months, the Federal Government allowing banks to loan money now for cars but have payments suspended for six months as well as allowing banks to include wage support and Centrelink payments when assessing loan applications.

Mr Beitz said he has spoken to local politicians from all three levels of government who were keen on finding further ways to assist businesses.

Federal Member for Bonner Ross Vasta with Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: AAP/Dave Hunt

Federal Member for Bonner Ross Vasta said the government was considering a range of options to deliver further economic support to businesses and their employees.

“(We want to support businesses) so they can build a bridge over this crisis and be able to recover and bounce back stronger on the other side and all options are on the table,” he said.

“I have been liaising with Barton’s managing director Mark Beitz directly regarding his feedback on the Economic Stimulus Package. There are many people facing similar and worse circumstances and we are working to support them as best we can.

“I have passed Mr Beitz’s feedback on directly to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Minister for Employment Senator Michaelia Cash as the government looks at further measures to support Australian businesses during this unprecedented time.”

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Meanwhile dealerships are finding ways to cope during the current tough times.

“In the interim we are trying to be creative and promote our online all of the time website,” Mr Beitz said.

“We have in the last week alone taken over 100 service bookings and sold 10 cars from customers chatting to us online. We are learning quickly to adapt.”

Ms Fisher said their service centres are still running “as per normal”, although there has been a tail off in demand.

She said the business, however, is trying to be optimistic, trying all it can to stimulate demand.

“We’ve got deals that you’ve never seen before,” she said.

Ms Fisher said Salters are now offering pick-up and drop-off of guests’ cars, same-day finance, and have a discount for frontline emergency services to get their car serviced.

Ms Fisher urged business owners to take advantage of the Federal Government’s instant asset write-off scheme by picking up a new car for their business.

Mr Vasta also encouraged all businesses impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak to visit business.gov.au to see what support was available to them and contact his office should they have any concerns.