Car dealer ends Volkswagen/Audi association with loss of 35 jobs

ONE of the country’s oldest car dealer franchises, Turners Cross Motors in Cork, is set to end its long-standing association with Volkswagen/Audi with the loss of at least 35 jobs.

The owners of the garage, Motor Services Limited, part of the hugely profitable O’Flaherty Motor Group yesterday informed staff at its Turners Cross Motors dealership of its decision not to undertake the development of new showrooms, workshops, ancillary premises and on-site facilities for Volkswagen and Audi at Turners Cross.

In a statement last night, the company said it accepted that: “This will result in the cancellation of its contracts to represent Volkswagen and Audi at Turners Cross Motors in the future.”

Staff at the garage were told by Alan Andrews, managing director of MSL, which is the retail arm of Motor Distributors Ltd, the O’Flaherty family-owned company which for many years distributed Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes, Skoda and Mazda vehicles in Ireland, that VW/Audi operations at Turners Cross would cease on September 30 next.

In recent months, however, Volkswagen AG, the German company which builds VW, Audi and Skoda products, ended its distribution arrangement with MDL and from October 1 next will wholly own its Irish distribution operation.

MDL also recently lost its Mazda franchise which is now operated by Mazda Europe.

The news of the job losses comes in a week in which the Society of the Irish Motor Industry announced that car sales for May were down over 50% on the same month last year, while those for the first five months of the year were down some 15% by comparison with the same period in 2007.

In a statement released last night, MSL said that for some time it had been engaged in separate discussions with Volkswagen and Audi regarding development at Turners Cross.

“After careful and serious consideration was given to all of the factors involved, the company was forced reluctantly to conclude that the very high level of investment required could not be justified in the current climate.”

The company also confirmed that the announcement relates only to Volkswagen and Audi operations at Turners Cross and not those of Mercedes-Benz.

A spokesman for MSL said that a decision of this nature must be based on “sound commercial criteria, primarily the potential return one could expect from the multi-million euro investment that would be involved”.

With a new Mercedes showroom having recently been built on part of the MSL-owned site at the Kinsale Road, there is now considerable speculation as to what the company will do with the rest of its property.