Car dealership closes after 106 years

ONE of the oldest car dealerships in the country has ceased trading with the loss of 16 jobs.

PJ O’Hea & Co, based at Little Island in Cork, closed its doors at 5.30pm yesterday after more than 100 years of continuous trading.

The company’s owner, Jim Oliver, last night cited the economic downturn, which has particularly affected car sales, as the reason for the closure.

“It is something I deeply regret, as part of the third generation of the family and the fact that we have been in business for 106 years.

“The current trading environment is very challenging and we are not the only concern affected by that,” he said, adding that the Government’s car scrappage scheme had helped car sales but had not been enough to counter the effects of the recession. Two years ago the dealership moved from its long- standing location on Patrick’s Quay to a purpose -built showroom and service facility at Eastgate Business Park in Little Island, a 25,0000 sq ft premises on a two-acre site. Mr Oliver defended that decision and said it was the right move to make at the time.

The city centre building remains for sale after plans to use the site to build a 14-storey mixed development were withdrawn in 2008. The so-called Gemini project was the subject of numerous submissions to planners, including many statements of support from businesses in the area. When the premises was put on the market two years ago, it was expected to sell for about €7 million.

PJ O’Hea is one of a number of high profile car dealerships to shut-up shop in the past three years.

In June 2009 the Tom Hogan car dealership closed because of trading difficulties, with the loss of 190 jobs. Tom Hogan Motors, which had outlets in Galway, Clare and Tipperary, was one of the country’s biggest Toyota dealerships.

Ironically, the PJ O’Hea closure comes at a time when car sales have begun to increase.

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry recently released new car sales statistics for January, which at 21,078 are 29% up on last year.

SIMI Director General Alan Nolan said the increase was a strong indication that the Government scrappage scheme is “incentivising people to buy new cars.” He said that the SIMI expected demand to continue to be high until the end of June when the scheme ends.