Vale: Garry Dumbrell

Automotive aftermarket industry stalwart passes away after accident at home

Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine was saddened to hear of the recent passing of industry stalwart, Garry Dumbrell. Garry, a former Treasurer, Vice President and longtime supporter of the AAAA, passed away following an accident at home in October at the age of 64. He started Allbrells Northcote in October 1977 with $5,000 and within eight years built Allbrells to 21 stores, having bought Dynamic Auto from Repco in the meantime. Around 1982 Garry took over the family’s Wynn’s Victorian distributorship. He was the first person in Australia to sell Wynn’s Mark 5 power flush machine, a product which changed the way additives were sold in Australia. In the early ‘80s Garry was a founding member of an independent buying group, which later became the Autobarn co-operative society and is today the successful Autobarn franchise business. He was involved in many different businesses during the 1990s including the development of the successful Bodytech car care range which was later bought by K&H and was the Eagle One products Australian and New Zealand distributor. Venturing into the car dealership market, he was a successful Nissan dealership owner in Berwick, Victoria and also became the national importer of the Top Cap Paint aerosol range of products, which was hugely successful in a very competitive market. The Dumbrell family sold the majority of the Automotive Brands group to Metcash Limited in 2012. He was inducted into the AAAA Hall of Fame in 2013 where he gave a stirring speech, humbly saying that he had got far more out of the industry than he put into it. “Everything in my life came from this room; I mean everything I have done, every house I’ve bought… has all come from this room,” he told the assembled industry members at the gala dinner of the AAAA Awards. He was a genuine man who rarely had a bad word to say about anyone. He was a very clever businessman and a fierce competitor, who had a simple philosophy for life. “If you concentrate on money, you never have any. If you wake up and work for money, guess what, you’re going to get none. You should wake up and have fun,” he said. “And never meet your competitor… You never meet your competitor because you might like him.” In the 2000s, Garry battled and defeated cancer. The Dumbrell family released the following statement to Speedcafe.com “We thank everyone for their messages and their thoughts over the last 48 hours. Garry would have been touched by all of the positive and kind words that have been said about him.” AAAM and the AAAA, its staff and members, extend their deepest sympathies and condolences to Garry’s family, including his son Paul, who is a former AAAA Board member, and has had business success in the aftermarket industry himself, which included a stint as CEO of Automotive Brands.

ZF OCEANIA LAUNCHES TECH EXPERTS CAMPAIGN

ZF Oceania is focusing on the faces within its business in its upcoming campaign

Initially featuring 10 local ZF product and technical experts, including SACHS Product Expert Craig Lowndes, the campaign highlights the industry know-how and experience of the local ZF team in Oceania. “The new Tech Experts campaign has been established to share our knowledge with the industry and to give customers and workshops complete confidence in the ZF business,” ZF Oceania Managing Director, Mark Lowe, said. “The Tech Experts captured within the campaign are some of the most experienced and qualified professionals within the industry. They each specialise in different areas of the ZF business, each with their own relevant experience and qualifications. “Together, they have more than 100 years of hands-on product and technical know-how with ZF and our brands [LEMFÖRDER, SACHS, TRW and WABCO] – plus their prior experience of course. “Whilst initially featuring just 10 members of the team, we look forward to profiling more experts from all levels of the local ZF business as the campaign progresses.” A key component of the campaign launch is a series of videos filmed by Craig Lowndes and ZF Oceania Business Development Managers Steve Borg and Daniel Kroon, representing the SACHS, TRW and LEMFÖRDER brands respectively. A mixture of highlight clips getting to know each expert, along with deep-dive technical tips, the videos will be uploaded to ZF Oceania’s social media channels and housed on a soon-to-launch dedicated website. “These videos serve to put a face to the brands, to further demonstrate our expertise within the industry. Each of the experts filmed in the first phase – Craig, Steve and Daniel – are intimately familiar with each brand, using the products themselves on a regular basis,” Mark said. “The launch of the Tech Experts campaign also coincides with the opening up of various states and territories after a challenging year and we are incredibly pleased to be able to have field staff back out on the road again, providing support to customers, where it’s needed.” Further complementing the Tech Experts campaign is a new advertising campaign on Triple M radio focusing on TRW being “True Braking Experts with over 100 years’ experience and a local car parc coverage of up to 96 percent, with the TRW brand leading the way in braking.” For more information, visit www.zf.com/au or call 1800 ZF SALES (1800 93 72537).