Former Eagers Automotive boss Martin Ward joins MotorCycle Holdings board

Eagers Automotive’s former boss Martin Ward is swapping four wheels for two as part of big changes at Brisbane-based MotorCycle Holdings.

Former Eagers Automotive boss Martin Ward is swapping four wheels for two as part of big changes at Brisbane-based MotorCycle Holdings.

Ward, who was chief executive of Eagers from 2005 to 2021, will join the board of Australia’s largest motorcycle dealer from next month along with Katie McNamara, a former senior executive with Super Retail Group.

The appointments will see former Suncorp Bank boss David Foster retire as chair along with director Warren Bee. Rick Dennis will step into the role of chair.

Foster says Ward (illustrated) and McNamara both have “outstanding understanding of the motor industry” and will play pivotal roles in helping to shape the group’s growth strategy. Motorcycle Holdings last month acquired Mojo Group, one of the country’s biggest importers and wholesalers of motorcycles, spare parts and accessories, for $60m.

With turnover of more than $400 million and 700 employees, Motorcycle Holdings was founded in the late 1980s with a single dealership in Brisbane’s southern suburbs. It now operates 37 retail sites.

Ward, a dapper Englishman, oversaw Eagers $2.42 billion bid for Perth-based Automotive Holdings Group (AHG) three years ago to create Australia’s largest auto group.

Ward predicts large traditional auto showrooms will be increasingly augmented by smaller more cost effective boutique outlets in shopping centres and high street locations.

Until July, McNamara led the development of corporate strategy for Super Retail Group including the Supercheap Auto, Rebel Sports, BCF and Macpac brands.

Martin Ward in the showroom. Pic Mark Cranitch.

Green Focus

Queensland’s abundant natural resources make it an attractive place not only as a source of food and minerals but the relatively new concept of carbon farming.

That was the message at a Brisbane Club lunch last week hosted by the Queensland Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Queensland Trade and Investment Commissioner for Japan Tak Adachi told the event that there are enormous opportunities for Queensland and Japan in carbon farming, low emission agriculture and biomass.

He noted the recent launch of the $62 billion Queensland energy and jobs plan under which the State Government has committed to a target of 70 percent renewable energy by 2032. Adachi highlighted how Japan, a nation of 124 million people, currently imports around 60 per cent of its food and up to 95 per cent of its energy. Queensland was in a strong position to benefit as a supplier of both key goods as well as associated carbon trading.

Department of Environment and Science’s Amelia Selles says there are opportunities for investors from Japan and elsewhere in funds such as Queensland Investment Corporation’s Queensland Natural Capital Fund that will make investments in timberland and other agricultural assets, including pastoral land, with a view to earning income from carbon credits. Other speakers included Hiroyuki Kagimoto, from the Electric Power Development Co (J Power) on blue carbon opportunities and GC Holding Corporation’s Yuki Nishimura on sustainable aviation fuel and biofuel.

Tak Adachi

Top Shelf

Congratulations to the folk at Grand Plaza at Browns Plains, which has been named the top shopping centre of the year by the Property Council Queensland. The Vicinity Centres’ owned property picked up the top gong at the Retail Property of the Year Awards at the Sofitel. Runner up was Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast while Maroochydore Homemaker Centre won an excellence in management award. Vicinity Centres executive Martia George was named the emerging retail professional of the year.

Grand Plaza Shopping Centre in Browns Plains