Interview: The first BMW, a 1602, arrived in Ireland 35 years ago. The importer of the then little-known marque was Frank Keane. Today his Motor Import company is estimated to be worth more than €40million and will sell over 4,000 cars this year. Andrew Hamilton looks back over Keane's 50 years in the industry
Frank Keane, you started in fairly inauspicious circumstances 35 years ago, importing BMWs into Ireland. The car was little known then. You had a regime which dictated that almost every car coming into the country had to be assembled, and, of course, times weren't nearly as affluent as now. How did you manage to make it all happen? Presumably funding even a small import operation like yours was then, wasn't easy?
Making it happen was very much due to one man, the late Ted O'Driscoll in the Hire Purchase Co of Ireland. He gave me the money, and Tim Jobling-Purser with whom I had worked in the Three Rock garage, guaranteed the new company for £25,000. Ted was also the instigation of me having one of my first dealers, Joe Duffy - he and Joe were very friendly.
The first few years, in terms of making money, were disastrous. By 1972 losses had accumulated to £22,000. Nevertheless Ted O'Driscoll backed us. By 1976 we had turned it around, mainly due to the fact that in 1973 duty on fully built imports was reduced from 75 per cent to 37.5 per cent. At that stage the company was making money although it was a struggle.
I was still selling every single car, doing 58,000 miles a year all over the country. Getting dealers was a problem: BMW was new to the market and quite unknown in the established motor trade.
I can't forget the early days, trying to tell people about this wonderful BMW marque that most people hadn't heard of. I was cold calling potential customers trying to effect a sale.
You got your first job as a salesman in 1952, so you are also celebrating 50 years in the motor trade. What about those days?
I started with the old Smithfield motor company, the largest Ford dealership in Dublin, working for a princely £3 10 shillings a week. Denis Fitzgibbon - of the famous Take the Floor dancing programme on Radio Éireann - gave me my first job. I stayed for 15 months, but left because Din Joe, as he was known, wouldn't give me the use of a car. That was May 1953.
I went to go to PR Reilly, a big multi-franchise dealer then with marques such as Austin, Morris, Wolseley, MG, Vauxhall, Hillman and Humber, which have nearly all disappeared.
You were quite a name in motor sport, in the late 1950s and early 1960s competing in the Phoenix Park, Dunboyne and various hill climbs. Did you have boyhood amibitions to be a Formula One champion?
I grew up with an interest in cars and teasing out performance. I started my motor racing career in 1957 in a DKW, winning many hill climb events.
Up north I came second to Lord Henry Dunleith in a circuit which later became famous for another reason, Long Kesh.
I never really thought about Formula One: there just wouldn't have been the money for that.
How difficult was it to overcome the early lack of familiarity with BMW? Executive cars in those days were mostly Mercedes-Benz.
Mercedes-Benz was strong. It had been in Ireland since 1954, but there were others such as the Humber Hawk and Snipe, the Wolseley 16/80, the Triumph 2000 and the Rover.
It's just so hard to imagine now, but BMW was more famous for its motor cycles and some early customers came to us because they knew how special BMW bikes were.
Do you remember your early customers and dealers?
My first customer was Ian McAlester, now deceased, a bank manager in Mountmellick. I went down to sell him a Peugeot 504. I was driving a BMW 1602 and, when I showed him its road-holding capabilities, he was won over.
The dealers at the beginning were Murphy and Gunn, Joe Duffy, Hartigans in Parkgate Street, Cross and Co in Cork, and Willy Crawford up in Raphoe, Donegal.
My best customer has to be Mrs Phyll Turpin - she bought her first car in 1968 and has just taken delivery of her 23rd BMW.
The growth of BMW in Ireland in 35 years has mirrored in many ways the success of the Irish economy. Was it all plain sailing?
During the 1970s sales slowly climbed. We got an extra licence allocation and, in 1981, 1,070 cars were sold. Then Garret FitzGerald's government brought in extra taxes. Our cars went up by 73 per cent and annual sales fell to 380. We had to cut employees from 64 to 38. It was the saddest time in my career. I'm sad too that equivalent taxes remain in place until this day.
What sets BMW apart from other German competition, from Mercedes or Audi?
BMW's appeal is to a younger, more agile kind of driver. But I have enormous respect for Mercedes-Benz.
Frankly I see it as the only real opposition to BMW. Mercedes admits that it wants a younger customer base so it's following the same pattern as BMW.
Would it be true to say that your early buyers were more "enthusiasts" than your current 4,000-plus customers? For many people driving a Beemer today is a marker for climbing the corporate ladder.
Our early customers were certainly a dedicated, enthusiastic and knowledgeable lot, but the economy changed and easier access to finance has given others the opportunity to rise to higher standards in every facet of life.
With quality workmanship and safety, many are aspiring to greater heights, and what better investment is there than a BMW?
What will BMWs of the future be like? Will the internal combustion engine be left behind for new fuel systems?
Almost certainly they will be hydrogen powered. BMW has said it will have them on the road by 2010. The problem still is just where you refuel.
But I think what's happening now and in the immediate future is exciting. For instance, BMW has brought enormous respectability to diesel. Now you can have a diesel with virtually the same performance as a petrol car with the same refinement but vastly more mpg.
After 35 years with BMW and 50 years in the motor trade and a remarkable success story, do you have any regrets, any missed opportunities?
Yes, there were some. But I'm happy about our expansion into Mitsubishi in the 1980s which strengthened our motor base and ensured the survival of our dealerships after that enormous tax hike.
Mitsubishi is set to have a bright future and interesting and stylish products are coming on stream in the next few years.
But it's BMW that's my first love. When I look at its operation today with 5,500 engineers in research and development, you know that here is a manufacturer firmly focused on the future.