22 - 28 March 2001

New premises, better service

Gasan Group of Companies has relocated the bulk of its operations to a brand new site in Mriehel. William Shaw, the director of the Group’s Automotive Division, explains to Blanche Gatt why the move was made

A gleaming metallic blue Jaguar gazes out across the Mriehel bypass from inside the two-storey high glass-walls of the new Gasan showroom in Mriehel. Three years and over four and a half million liri have gone into the building of this six level, 5,000 square metre, state-of-the-art, edifice shimmeringly clad in marble, glass and chrome. Today the company celebrates the move from their cramped and jaded Gzira premises that was originally built by the founder of the company Joe Gasan Senior, to house his bus building enterprise in 1934.
Almost 70 years later, the Gasan Group of companies is recognised as one of Malta’s most significant and reputable businesses, with the automotive division still the undisputed jewel in their crown. This is confirmed by the fact that the magnificent building they have just moved to is almost entirely occupied by the vehicle showroom, mechanics’ workshops, administration and accounts and a host of other services that car dealership entails.
William Shaw is the director of Gasan Group’s Automotive Division. He explained during an interview in his brand new office why the company decided to invest so much time and money in this laborious relocation excerise.
“This new building,” he said, “offers customers a totally different environment to one they experienced in Gzira. The garage there was too small, and the area was a residential one surrounded by family homes, so there was no chance of expansion. The activities we were carrying out, like spraying of cars and body parts, were not suitable for that environment, and the area was so busy that customers never found anywhere to park when they needed to visit.”
The decision to move away from Gzira was taken some three years ago, and immediately the Gasan Group set about locating the appropriate site, buying the land and applying for the requisite permits. “The first foundation stone was laid in October 1999,” continued Mr Shaw, “and for the last two and a half years work has continued steadily until we were finally able to move in at the beginning of this week.”
The building, whose six floors are occupied by various sections of the automotive division on four of the floors and two other Gasan companies, BDS and Mekkanika on the top floor, was designed by Raniolo & Bencini, with the assistance of Ford Motor Company. “Ford helped enormously,” said Mr Shaw. “and we spent a lot of time visiting their various dealerships in order to be able to model the design of the building on a Ford dealership.”

The Malta dealership, according to Mr Shaw, is the only Ford Motor Company dealership in the world with four Ford Motor Company owned brands under one roof.
All four types of cars are represented at Gasan’s new premises in Mriehel. These consist of Ford itself, which Gasan has represented since 1928, making it the third oldest Ford Franchise outside the United States. “When I joined the company in 1966,” said Mr Shaw, “we only had Ford. Then in the early 1970s we acquired the Mazda dealership, in 1985 we were awarded the Volvo franchise and in 1994 we added Jaguar to our stable.”
Ford cars have a solid and loyal following in Malta. This is confirmed by Mr Shaw’s statement that Ford is the most popular type Gasan sell. “The reason for this,” he said, “is the price range. We do the Ka, the Focus, the Fiesta, the Mondeo, the Puma and the Transit van. The Ka, which came out at the end of 1997, sells for just over Lm4,000, and there are already over 600 on the road. The Focus, which replaced the Escort, was launched about two years ago and it was an instant success. It won the international Car of the Year Award and already we have sold over 200 of them.”
The situation is less rosy for the Mazda range. Escalating prices due to the appreciation of the Japanese Yen in relation to most European currencies have pushed Mazda cars into a situation where they cannot compete with similar European models. “We sell about 100 Mazdas a year,” said Mr Shaw. “And although during the last two years it has been difficult for all Japanese cars, within 18 months Mazda will be opening a factory in Spain and producing cars there for the European market. Then we will see the prices levelling out.”
Volvo and Jaguar are Gasan’s two prestige makes of car, with Jaguar described as the company’s flagship. The company carries three models of Volvo, the S40, the S60 and the S80, and two types of Jaguar, the S-type and the X-type. The s-type, priced at Lm36,000 is their most expensive model, and occupies pride of place in the brand new showroom.
“All of these cars except Mazda are fully owned by the Ford Motor Company,” explained Mr Shaw, “and even Mazda is partly owned by Ford.” The fact that they are all represented by Gasan was coincidental, as all of the franchises bar Jaguar were acquired before Ford took over the parent companies. “But it is still of advantage to the customer.” said Mr Shaw. “The fact that Ford owns so many types of cars helps to keep prices of parts and components down for the customer. If Jaguar for example need to buy windscreens, they can go to the supplier and put pressure on him to keep the prices down by citing Ford or Mazda or Volvo. This means that when car owners come to change a damaged windscreen they benefit from cheaper prices. Though it is not immediately obvious, the difference in prices for parts could be as much as 20 per cent cheaper.”
Gasan Automotive Division, comprising all four makes of car, sell around 500 cars a year. To recoup their investment in the new premises, they are hoping to see an increase in sales in general, but are also hoping to benefit from becoming a “benchmark” for the automotive market in Malta. “We are an extremely customer-driven organisation,” said Mr Shaw. “As such, we couldn’t carry on serving our customers in the previous set-up. So apart from getting back our investment from increasing our business, we also plan to become more efficient, with more space for cars, sales, insurance, parts and service. We have increased the service bays by 15 per cent, space in terms of bodyshop has increased significantly, we have two ovens for spraying instead of one, plus two extra spraying booths and a lot more. Waiting time for car services will be cut by more than half, and VRT can be performed at a day’s notice. All this will serve to boost business of course, but perhaps more importantly, we want to increase customer satisfaction, we want them to be happy with our service.”
Preparations for the move did not only consist in brick and mortar, but also in education. “All our 80 plus staff received extra training in the run-up period to our moving in here, and we are very positive that with these measures, customers will see and appreciate our efforts and commitment to giving better services, as well as to increase sales.”
“From now on,” he continued, “our customers are going to be able to get everything they need from under the same roof. Whether they want to buy a car, replace parts, get a
service, get rust-proofing or emergency repairs done – it is all carried out here. And while they are waiting they can sit in the showroom area, which is full of light and space and air “they can even watch the work being carried out on their vehicle through the glass windows”. Significant efforts have been made to bring the operations in line with the latest EU regulations on health and safety, with newly installed features including a sophisticated ventilation/induction and extraction systems, fire alarms, fire release doors, hose reels and CO2 monitoring systems. “Health and safety has been very highly prioritised,” explained William. “We are very concerned that our mechanics will be working continuously in a clean and safe environment.”
Gasan’s appreciation of its staff is evident in the long service records of many of their staff. A large percentage of employees spend their entire working lives with the company, and, Mr Shaw points out, he too has worked with Gasan for over 35 years. The loyalty of the staff has not been forgotten in the excitement of the relocation exercise; tomorrow night Gasan Group of Companies will be hosting all the employees and their spouses at a party to celebrate the new building and the old faithful.