The new dealership will open on March 1. Photo / Bevan Conley
The former Pizza Hut restaurant on Whanganui’s Victoria Ave will morph into something very different next month.
Western Coast MG, which has branches in Hāwera and New Plymouth, is set to open a new car dealership at the site on March 1.
Operations manager Craig Baylis said his kids had been to school in Whanganui and the family were big fans of the city.
The plan was always to move the business south, he said.
“You’ve got a great, dynamic main street.
“Sometimes a big mall gets built somewhere and it kills it, but that hasn’t happened there.
“We like being a part of it, and we couldn’t believe our luck when we got the site.”
The building was previously occupied by Ray White Real Estate.
The MG brand, which celebrates its centenary this year, was started by British car designer Cecil Kimber.
Since 2007, it has been owned by Chinese company Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.
Baylis said MG’s design studio was still in the UK but mass production took place in China.
“MG do a range of petrol, electric and petrol-electric vehicles, from small cars to medium-sized SUVs (sport utility vehicles).
“We already have clients in Whanganui, but we think there is real opportunity to grow into that area.”
The dealership will feature only new vehicles.
Baylis said new MGs started from $19,500, with a top-of-the-line electric car priced at $65,000. Despite having a new audience, he said he was sure they would fit in well.
“Our head office is Hāwera. We are South Taranaki people - country folk, not big-time city slickers.
“On March 1, we’ll have a pop-up shop - a tiny home on wheels - while construction is going on at the old Pizza Hut.
“It’s such a great building. What’s perfect for us is that those old restaurants were designed so they didn’t need internal posts.
“We can have a completely open showroom.”
Baylis said he started an apprenticeship in car sales in Hāwera in 1985 at the age of 18.
He and his wife, the company’s financial director Joy Baylis, joined forces with MG dealer principal Jimmi Guillosson in mid-2023 to launch the business.
Baylis said his wife got her first job at a Pizza Hut in Guilford, England.
“We are still keeping the Pizza Hut look, there will just be cars instead,” Baylis said.
“Who knows - maybe if it doesn’t work out, we can start selling pizzas again.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multi-media journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.
'We’ve got our enforcement teams and where we can, we’ll track them down.'