Australia’s leading independently owned after-market auto service provider and the man at the helm

Ultra Tune is an Australian institution. It has consistently been the number one service provider in its category during its 41-year plus history. For much of that time it has been owned and directed by one man: Sean Buckley.

In his 26 year plus tenure and the owner, visionary and Executive Director of this privately owned, all Australian company, Buckley has steered the organization from basket-case when he first acquired it, to being the jewel in the crown of his Ultra Group of Companies empire.

“Yeah, when I first purchased Ultra Tune back in the early ‘90’s it was in all sorts of trouble. We had franchisees going under and bailing out, we had franchisees locked into unsustainable tenancy agreements and a whole lot of other issues. The whole set up was a mess!

We had to pause, review and restructure the whole business” recalls Buckley.

And restructure he did, and the results came quickly.

A strugglingly enterprise of a mere 40 franchises quickly grew to 100. Then 200 and now nearly 30 years later, the company has “Target 300” firmly in its sights.

With the appearance of a man 20 years his junior, Buckley concedes that should the same set of circumstances present themselves today as he faced back in the early ‘90’s, he’s not sure if he’d still have the stomach for the fight once more. “Back then I was ploughing money back into the business to initially keep it afloat. It was tough, I was living on the equivalent of $100 a week, pretty much hand to mouth, but I had a vision and was prepared to see it through.”

That vision paid dividends. Buckley has been repeatedly offered north of $250M by various groups including a major international automotive group to purchase Ultra Tune lock, stock and barrel.

“Sure, I’d be lying to say it wasn’t a tempting offer. But I love what I do. I have personal relationships with a number of my franchisees. I feel responsible for their and their family’s wellbeing and I wouldn’t be comfortable handing those responsibilities onto an impersonal corporate entity” Buckley reflected.

Case in point. At the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic Buckley relocated back from his residence on the Queensland Gold Coast to Melbourne to be in closer proximity to the company’s corporate offices. During his tenure back in Melbourne, Buckley helped navigate the organization through probably its most challenging period ever.

“We had franchisees unable to pay their rents, others forced to temporarily close their doors due to COVID restrictions. We had to think on our feet, pivot and respond. With my senior management and legal teams, we helped negotiate rental relief, suspended royalty payments and introduced new safety critical work in the form of vehicle sanitation which kept our stores open, functioning and solvent. It was tough, but I’m proud to say, not one of our centres went under. We all took a hit but survived.”  

Ultra Tune now knows that there’s gold in them there hills going forward!

With the recent ruling made by the ACCC and legislation in the works with the Australian Federal Government banning the quarantining of servicing data by manufacturers, it will soon be open slather for independents such as Ultra Tune to compete on a fair playing field with manufacturers and their dealerships.

“For so many years we’ve (independent after-market repairers) been viewed as the poor cousins to the dealerships. Dealers and manufacturers have repeatedly lied to and misled the Australian public telling them; if they didn’t return to the dealership to service their cars, they’d void their new car warranties” stated Buckley.

This is a nonsense, long known in the industry, but a misnomer dealership have happily propagated to maintain their monology in the aftersales service industry.

“On average, Ultra Tune charges about 30% less than dealerships to do precisely the same job(s). Now dealerships (a) won’t be able to lie to customers and (b) they’ll have to compete on a level playing field based on service and cost. That’s why they are so intimidated. We run a polished, lean and efficient business, the dealerships have been living the dream based on lies and deceptive for way too long – that all ends in 2021” stated Buckley adamantly.

The aftermarket servicing business is worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Australia, move the needle a couple of percentage points away from the dealerships towards the independents and the independents have just acquired tens of millions of dollars of additional work.

“We know there is going to be growth, hence our Target 300 goal by 2023. In the last 12 months, even during the COVID pandemic, our network has grown by 15 stores across the country. With international borders closed and Aussies conscious of their spending habits a few things have happened: 1. Australians are doing more driving holidays, 2. Australians are holding onto their cars longer and 3. Australians are concerned about using public transport because of COVID infection risks.  Consequently, Ultra Tune has seen significant growth. We specialize in servicing cars that are 6-10 years old, people are using their vehicles more for holidays and for daily commutes, with that increased use comes increased servicing and repairs.”

Buckley and National/International Business Development Manager, Nick Tatsis, have been working overtime keeping up with demand and interest from prospective franchisees.

“Ultra Tune has a truly unique business model” said Tatsis. “We have a relatively low cost of entry, somewhere between $70-150,000 depending on the site and business maturity, plus we provide outstanding training and support to our franchisees. Our IT platform is second to none in the industry. Everything from invoicing, customer follow up to marketing, legal, accounting, franchisee support/training and fleet management is administered centrally ensuring our franchisees can get on with doing what they do best – servicing cars and looking after their customers. If there’s a glitch or a franchisee has a question our National Support Office is on call to assist. It makes for a pretty powerful value proposition for prospective franchisees” reflects Tatsis.

The benefits don’t end there. Having spoken to franchisees already in the system, a number have mentioned their own personal experiences where Buckley has entered into business agreements with them in which Buckley has made interest free loans to these prospective franchisees, out of his own pocket, to fund and establish new centres.

Quizzed about this, Buckley is initially a little coy, evasive and dismissive. Pushed a little harder and he concedes it has happened “on a couple of occasions”.

“Look, I’ve been in this industry a number of years. It has been very good to me. By and large I’ve got a pretty good ‘people radar’. If I can see someone is gung-ho, hungry, committed and keen, I’ll foster that and give them a hand. I’d rather gamble $50-100K on someone I see potential in and help them get a foot hold in the network. This has happened a few times and we’ve developed million-dollar turnover businesses as a result. More importantly, those franchisees I helped have become lifelong friends committed to the Ultra Tune family. Some of them now own multiple stores in their own right. So yes, if I spot the right person with potential, I’ll go out on a limb for them, offer an interest free loan and go into a partnership with them. Worst case scenario; if it doesn’t work out we go our separate ways from a partnership perspective, the store reverts to a company owned store and we run it as a company owned store, but at least I’ve given someone an opportunity” lamented Buckley.

As we move into 2022, Ultra Tune is in a unique position of growth and opportunity.

Up until COVID hit globally, Ultra Tune was in the process of setting up an International Centre for Automotive Excellence in South East Asia to train aspiring automotive mechanics and deploy them internationally. This is an initiative Buckley intends to continue and expand as international borders begin to open once more. Add this to the IT developments Buckley has overseen in the development of a purpose built, white-labelled, industry leading auto-management application, adaptable to anywhere in the world and Ultra Tune’s future couldn’t look brighter. Just as many entrepreneurs are preparing to wind down and enjoy the fruits of their labour, Buckley is ramping it up with the mantra of working “smarter not harder”.

If the last three decades are any indication, Ultra Tune’s prior growth will no doubt persist well into the 2020’s and beyond under Buckley’s stewardship.