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A 60-car showroom is an expected part of the blueprint when you're building the third biggest BMW dealership on the planet.
A 5000-bottle wine cellar and pizza oven aren't the customary dealership fare but Ingo Reisch isn't a conventional dealership owner. Reisch invested $15 million to transform the Doncaster BMW showroom in Melbourne's east into a hi-tech automotive retail outlet. The showroom also sells Minis and BMW motorbikes.
BMW -- and prestige car rivals -- are viewing it as an indicator of how showrooms should evolve. "BMW is the world's most sustainable car company and I thought we should carry that philosophy through on the retail side," Reisch says.
Beyond the glossy facade is a focus on minimising the dealership's environmental footprint. It has double the insulation required by the building code, it stores 122,000 litres of rainwater for washing the vehicles and photovoltaic film has been applied to the windows to generate 10kW of "green'' power to help run the complex.
Sensors in the showrooms measure the amount of natural light and adjust LED arrays accordingly. In the back offices, motion sensors turn the lights on and off. "Some of the new technology is like our cars -- pretty amazing. We're also setting up a new body shop in Doncaster and the (paint) ovens use 90 per cent less energy than a regular unit but give a better result,'' Reisch says. "That in turn gives us a commercial edge because our overheads are lower.''
Reisch cites the improvements in diesel as among the biggest industry shifts he's witnessed. "Eight, nine, 10 years ago, diesels were seen as an agricultural engine,'' he says. "You might get the odd farmer buy one because he already had diesel tanks but that was about it. "Now 50-60 per cent of our sales are diesel. It's all about squeezing the most energy you can out of the fuel and customers now appreciate that.''
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