Sometimes business is all about timing and movement and that’s an accepted mantra that Derek Keeler appears to have embraced as he steers Murray GM in Estevan into a new era of sales and service to new and repeat customers who become friends.
Keeler is taking a fresh approach to stimulate the local dealership and move it forward on the business scales and that movement includes a physical relocation which he hopes will take place in the early part of next spring to spacious new quarters and accompanying sales along Kensington Avenue.
The move from their current headquarters on the 800 block of 13th Avenue will give the General Motors franchise more than double the space they currently embrace in a more central area of the city. Keeler said the new location will be even more customer friendly with drive through service, a nine-vehicle showroom (as opposed to two or three) and plenty of room for the company’s 45 employees to tend to their respective duties that include not only sales and service of new and used GM cars, SUVs and trucks, but also a current modest drive-through (quick service) bay plus an auto body repair shop that is SGI approved.
“The new location is just under five acres and there is a complete renovation of a 42,000 square foot building there, which I hope will be ready for occupancy by the first part of April next year,” Keeler said. “It’s not only a facelift but the location we have now leaves us with restricted space and it’s an awkward configuration. The new location will allow us to be even more customer friendly and easier on the staff.”
Although he’s only 37, Keeler is a veteran of the well-documented Murray dealership story, having moved to Estevan about a year ago to take on the operating partnership of the local franchise from Medicine Hat, Alta.
Keeler is a graduate of Medicine Hat College’s business administration course and had an extensive background in farming and the agriculture sector before moving into the sales role at Murray GM in Medicine Hat. The Murray Group is now in its 90th year of operation, having started in Souris, Man. They now embrace 32 franchise operations across Canada (excluding Ontario and Quebec) with the dealerships handling not only General Motors but also other well known vehicle lines such as Chrysler, Kia, Honda, Hyundi, Mazda, Nissan and others. Most of them run by operating partners such as himself.
Keeler said his wife Jodi has family roots in Saskatchewan. She, and their five-year-old daughter Raya and four-year-old son Jaden have easily settled into the Energy City.
“Actually, the timing might be good in some respect. Things are quiet now, the economy has taken a downward swing, but we’ll be well set and ready for when it bounces back, and it will,” he said. In the meantime, no staff layoffs, in fact, they’ve even added a few new faces recently, but there are efficiencies in place in recognition of the current economic conditions. “We’ll work through it,” he said with pure confidence. “Agriculture is good here, we have the mines and the power plants along with the oil. Estevan should be OK.”
Because it’s an industrially driven community, Keeler said the ratio of sales of trucks and SUVs continues to far outweigh the sale of cars, something all dealerships will relate to.
“We’ll be cautious, but with the new location, we’ll be able to consolidate and add more services and bump sales. The mandate is still to take care of your people, the employees and the customer … get a feel for the market and do the right thing in the community. It’s a competitive industry but a great business to be in.”
