Ultra Tune
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| Industry | Automotive |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
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Key people
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Sean Buckley (Executive Chairman) Hamish Murdoch (Director of Operations) |
| Services | Car servicing, vehicle part fitting, tyres, breakdown |
| Website | www |
Ultra Tune is an Australian owned franchised automotive servicing and roadside assist company with over 275 centres. Ultra Tune is the largest independent automotive car servicing and repairer in Australia.
Ultra Tune commenced trading in 1979 with a pilot store in Box Hill, Victoria and rapidly expanded across the country after businessman Bert Smart saw a specialist Fast Tune-Up store in Hawaii whilst traveling home from the USA. Through Smart's vision a franchise model was established which saw the new business expand rapidly into all Australian states except Western Australia.
In 1988 each of the franchisor entities (with the exception of South Australia) merged and formed a new company Ultra Tune (Systems) Australia Pty Ltd (UTSA) and within 12 months opened its first franchise store in Perth, Western Australia. In the early 1990s the network experienced turmoil and faced financial ruin with a number of stores across the network forced to close due high rental lease costs. After a public auction in 1994, Sean Buckley acquired management and then later shareholding control in Ultra Tune and after receivers had been appointed to UTSA.
Under Sean Buckley, Ultra Tune Australia Pty Ltd was created and over the next 22 years he developed his own business model - which included the acquisition of competing brands such as Car Care Clinic (1999) and Auto Masters sites in Queensland and NSW during the early 2000s. He grew the organization from around 70 mediocrely operating franchises into a successful national franchise network model making many of the franchisees considerable wealth in the process. For the last ten years directors of Ultra Tune have been Sean Buckley (Executive Chairman) and Hamish Murdoch (Director of Operations).
In 2010 Ultra Tune expanded into the Kingdom of Bahrain, partnering with Bahrain National Holding and Saudi Arabia under the guidance of Hamish Murdoch working as General Manager of the Middle East Division. This included investing in a state of the art four level workshop in Salmabad as part of this expansion project. In 2015 Ultra Tune Australia sold its interests in the company back to Bahrain National Holdings.
In conjunction with Gadjah Mada University Indonesia, Ultra Tune initiated a training facility to educate and train students in automotive repair. This facility enabled Ultra Tune to utilize the students who became certified and assist with finding them positions within Ultra Tune Internationally.
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Wikipedia