Bohanna Motors has been awarded the Mobil Dealer Service Station of the Year award. Photo / Dave Chapman
Bohanna Motors has been awarded the Mobil Dealer Service Station of the Year award. Photo / Dave Chapman
Not long ago, Martin Bohanna considered closing his petrol service station.
A ram raid, various rising costs and other stuff were almost too hard to bear.
But he mustered the courage to persevere, especially because of his loyal staff, the business had been part of his family for so long, and it was well respected and patronised by the community.
The service station was soon back on its steady feet and now there’s absolute proof of how good things are.
Bohanna Motors, in Waikanae, on the Kāpiti Coast, has been declared the Mobil Dealer Service Station of the Year.
“My Mobil representative rang me and said that we’d won the award and turned up at the service station with it.
Martin Bohanna with the Mobil Dealer Service Station of the Year award. Photo / David Haxton
“Staff were rapt and I’m rapt for them.
“Mobil shouted us a nice morning tea.”
The morning tea was very well deserved.
“After a couple of years of hard slog with Covid, fuel sales going down, and then the ram raid, it has been good to get through it and then win a major award.”
The ram raid happened on October 12 and work to fix the damage didn’t get completed until the first week of May.
“A ute was driven through the front of the service station showroom and vaping product stolen.
“Ninety seconds was how long they were in the building.
“And they did $79,000 worth of damage.
Ram raid aftermath at Bohanna Motors.
“That was on top of two real hard years and I ended up having a mental breakdown.
“It was really hard work but luckily the support of our customers, and stuff like that, helped us through.
“On the day of the ram raid, builder Mike Craig came and built us a new shop frontage with ply and timber framing, before 1pm, after ringing me at 7.30am.
“He said, ‘I see you’ve been ram raided’, I said ‘yeah we have’, and he said, ‘I’m on my way [to help]’.”
The Mobil Dealer Service Station of the Year award was based on a lot of things such as mystery shoppers, fuel turnover, health and safety specifications, customer experience, and Mobil loyalty programme numbers.
“It’s a huge range of things that are taken into account.”
He was grateful his service station has been chosen.
“It’s nice to have acknowledgment about what my staff are doing is appreciated, because we still serve all the time on the forecourt, and our fuel sales are beginning to dwindle down because of electric cars plus the price of fuel.
“It’s a changing dynamic in the job now, unfortunately, but we try to be a good old-fashioned service station.”
Martin revealed some of the service station’s secrets for success.
“It comes down to my staff and our pursuit to make sure our customers get the best service they can.
