This article is from page 25 of the 2009-06-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 25 JPG
TOM Hogan Motors, one of the larg- est Toyota dealers in the State, has gone into voluntary liquidation with the expected loss of almost 200 jobs. Staff were informed last Wednesday that the company had ceased trad- ing.
The company, which was estab- lished by the late Tom Hogan in Ennis over thirty years ago, had extended its operations to Galway, Shannon, Clonmel and Limerick.
The firm expanded its business over the past few years, expanding its En- nis base and opening a new premises in Ballybritt on the outskirts of Gal- way city in 2005 at a cost of €3 mil- lion.
While the company was synony- mous with the Toyota brand, it was also a main dealer for Lexus and took over the BMW franchise in Galway city from Barry Motors last year.
In addition to its car dealerships and garages, the company also main- tained petrol stations and retail out- lets in all its areas of operation.
According to the most recent ac- counts filed with the Companies Registration Office, the Tom Hogan Group reported a pre-tax loss of €393,163 in 2006, after a write down of €992,559 for exceptional costs. Turnover was €103 million and the cost of sales stood at €98 million.
The car industry has been hit hard in the economic downturn with the
latest figures from the Central Statis- tics Office showing new car registra- tions down more than 60 per cent in May compared with a year earlier.
Several dealerships have closed their doors in recent months, includ- ing one of the country’s oldest BMW dealerships, Pat Keogh Ltd, based in Limerick.
The liquidation is a severe setback to Toyota’s dealer network in the mid-west region and Toyota Ireland Deputy Managing Director Steve
Tormey said it was very sad to see a company of the calibre of Tom Hog- an’s going into liquidation.
Reassuring customers that their full warranty and service needs would be met by other authorised Toyota dealers, Mr Tormey said Toyota’s thoughts were with the management and staff with which it has had a re- lationship for over 30 years.
BMW Group Ireland said in a statement it was committed to main- taining a sales presence in Galway.
Customers with service or warranty issues could contact the aftersales facilities in other dealers and author- ised repairers in BMW’s network
The company said it understood that Tom Hogan BMW and Mini, which has been a stand alone com- pany since it joined the BMW Group Ireland network in October 2008, would cease trading with immediate effect.