Dianne Craig, Ford Motor Company of Canada CEO and president, (left) attends the opening of the Madraga family’s relocated dealership retail outlet in Melfort, Sask. The dealership is run by three brothers Kim, Kevin, and Ken (centre) who took over the business a decade ago from parents Mike and Evelyn, extreme right. The third generation of Madragas is shown in background.
Service is everything to the three Madraga brothers (Kim, Ken, and Kevin), who have just opened a new relocated Ford dealership, on the outskirts of Melfort in rural Saskatchewan. It is the essential element that has made them the largest rural Ford dealership in Western Canada.
“We have a saying that we have used forever – Ford made the car and Melody makes the difference,” says general manager Ken, who shares duties with Kim, parts manager, and Kevin, operations manager, at the new 44,000 sq.ft. retail and service outlet. The facility saw the brothers invest $9 million and sits on 10 acres of land, providing ample opportunity for growth.
The trio are second generation auto dealers. Father Mike Madraga bought into Melody Motors in 1962 when it was located in the community’s downtown. He eventually bought the other partners out. By 2000, Mike and wife Evelyn retired, selling out their interest to their three sons.
Over the next decade, the three brothers realized the industry was reshaping itself. For one thing, a lot of rural dealers where closing down. Many were located in areas with smaller populations like Melfort, which has 6,200 residents.
FINDING ROOM FOR GROWTH
“The dealers were getting bigger and they were offering more to the customers,” he says. “We decided that we had to grow the business.” The difficulty was that it had no space to grow in the downtown location, but outside of town was a 10-acre site with a building that served as a sales outlet for farm equipment.
If the building wasn’t exactly what the Madraga trio were looking for, the location certainly was. It was near a crossroads. “You can see the crossroads from here,” says Ken. The highway goes south to Regina, west to Saskatoon, north to Prince Alberta and east to many smaller communities. It is that catch basin of smaller communities that the Madragas saw as an ideal customer base. “They will see our dealership and realize they don’t have to go to Regina or a larger city. We can offer not just the product but also the service,” says Ken.
The brothers then went to work on the building. It had the steel frame needed for a dealership and “we took the building apart” giving it a complete upgrade, with geothermal, glass show windows, customer lounge, service and maintenance areas and parts. There’s also a customer lounge. “We put in a massage chair,” remarks Ken.
While the large lot — six acres are being used — allows for up to 275 vehicles to be parked outside, the dealership works hard at service and maintenance, a customer stable that keeps them returning to the store. The new building — about 25 per cent larger than the older store — now has six drive through service bays. There’s also a new larger car wash that can even handle semi-trailers.
“We moved the parts and service areas closer to the driveway so it is a lot easier for our customers to get to,” remarks Ken. “We built our business on service.”
EXPANDED SERVICE
In the old shop, there were five hoists with two dedicated to maintenance and service. The new store has 11 hoists, all dedicated to service and two maintenance pits for easy, fast oil changes.
One feature that has been incorporated is using a camera while performing the service or maintenance to show any problems to customers. A picture can be downloaded and sent to the client (who might be resting in the customer lounge) to determine whether or not the problem should be addressed.
The new facility took a year to refurbish and a grand opening was held Sept. 19. It was a gala community event with a magician doing illusions, a bouncy tent for kids, balloon animals, plus Northeast SPCA hosting a barbecue, food bank donations and the Melfort Mustangs Junior A hockey team serving hors d’oeuvres, along with a Cash Cube to win money, and a guest guitarist. Ford Motor Company of Canada president and CEO Dianne Craig along with Gerald Wood, western regional manager plus sales team members attended along with more than 500 people from the community.
Ken says he was pleased to have Craig visit the new retail outlet. “It meant a lot to us to have her here. It was an acknowledgement of what we have accomplished,” he said. It also gave the brothers an opportunity to emphasize how important customer service is. “I think she was impressed with how we treat our customers.”
