In his first interview since BMW announced it was taking back its franchise, Frank Keane talks to Andrew Hamilton
The last week or so must have been an emotional time for you. What are your thoughts as you prepare to depart as Irish importer and distributor for BMW?
I was sad and emotional, especially as I was known as Mr BMW for over 30 years. But I look back on the great success we have had with the marque, achieved by a wonderful and dedicated staff at Motor Import.
Good marketing skills played a major influence too, against obstacles like punitive taxation and a totally unknown product.
My biggest emotion was telling the staff, some of whom have been with us since the early 1970s. We don't have a high turnover which says something about the nature of our operation.
Most of our staff knew customers directly, even though they were buying their cars through dealers and that surely augurs well for our future as a retail dealer in west Dublin.
Again, I think of the customer loyalty to BMW. One lady who is 83 will be taking delivery of her 25th BMW car in June while a Co Galway doctor is on his 17th.
We like to nurture people like that. Compared with other importers, we feel we have been that bit more intimate.
Your own wealth has also grown with BMW's identity here since you became its importer 36 years ago. One newspaper says your fortune is "conservatively estimated" at €70 million, another suggests €50-€100 million. Can you confirm any of these speculative comments?
I'm not interested in personal wealth but, yes, having BMW has made a contribution.
These estimates seem like multiplication tables. I've never really sat down to count my wealth. I'm afraid the terms of the hand-over package have to remain confidential, strictly involving a few people at BMW Ag and just three of us here.
Would the takeover have happened if you had been selling hundreds rather than thousands of cars a year?
Definitely not. I'm sure if I was the importer in say Iceland, I would have been left alone. But I'm not angry.
When did you first become aware of BMW's interest? Did you initially oppose their intentions?
We had warnings that the block exemption scene and EU proposals for greater competitiveness were going to change the whole construction of the European motor industry.
BMW's plan came out in the open in early 2001 and of course, we made a case about how efficient and customer based we were - and BMW acknowledged that.
Yes, it would have been great to have stayed on as BMW Irish importer. But I suppose we were faced with the inevitable. BMW had only five locally-owned importers in Europe, Denmark, Luxembourg, Portugal, Greece and Ireland and there are 27 daughter companies.
As their statement last week pointed out, it's corporate strategy to take over independent operators in the EU.
Do you think that other manufacturers will practise similar moves on the Irish market against Irish-owned importers?
I think the eventual trend will be acquisition. But I can't really speculate about other manufacturers: they all have different agendas. The EU insistence on greater competitiveness is clearly going to reduce margins and that could mean a tighter and more efficient profit scene which is where importers could lose interest.
Doesn't your previous role as an importer give you a significant advantage over BMW's other Irish dealers? You have taken a personal interest in many of the customers who have bought cars through these dealers. Won't they be inclined to come to you instead? They might see you as Mr BMW still, someone with the inside track?
Motor Import as a dealership will be competing on equal terms with the other 16 dealerships in the Republic and none of us will know what the terms of our contracts will be until these contracts are issued in the run up to October.
We would like to think that customers coming to the new Motor Import company will be influenced by the customer care that we always practised. We have a fantastic workshop with highly-trained operatives and that will transfer to the dealership.
Looking back over 36 years with BMW, presumably you have one or two regrets?
I don't actually, if you're talking about the way I ran BMW. I'm very much in accord with Edith Piaf and I hope her song will be sung at my funeral. But I do regret very much the shambolic state of our infrastructure. It's a terrible indictment of successive Irish governments.
I have invested in my companies like Motor Import and created employment while their investment in the infrastructure has been too little, too late.
In your long experience of the marque, what's the legend in the stable?
I prefer to think in the plural, legends. There are so many. But the 2002 was as far as head in its day as the new 7 series is now.
My BMW favourite is actually the X5 diesel. BMW is the undoubted world leader with engines, and now also with diesel engines. I couldn't honestly have imagined that starting off back in 1967.
You still control the Mitsubishi franchise here. It never quite achieved the high volume popularity of other Japanese brands. Do you expect that to change?
Mitsubishi has an ambitious new model programme which will be kicking in shortly. I expect a model line-up that will stimulate and excite.
Later this year, you will be 70. Any thoughts on retirement?
No thoughts at all. Cars have been a big part of my life and will continue to be. I'm not a gardener and I don't want to get under my wife's feet at home. But maybe I will do more travelling.