Sean Buckley Interview – Ultra Tune’s Natural Born Leader

Sean Buckley – Ultra Tune Executive Chairman

Ultra Tune Executive Chairman, Sean Buckley, is a leader in the automotive aftermarket servicing industry.
Throughout his tenure with the organisation, Sean Buckley has focused on innovation and is the impetus behind Ultra Tune’s controversial, but highly successful, advertising campaigns. Persistence and honesty (sometimes brutal honesty), he says, are two of his key strengths.

Sean has come a long way since he embarked on his first job stacking supermarket shelves. Now the head of one of Australia’s most recognisable brands, Buckley says his career progressed to where it is today via a combination of savvy business decisions, gut feel, luck, hard work, taking counsel from some good people and being prepared to take a chance or two along the way.

Raised in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, he is the first-born son of Peter and Gloria Buckley. He attended Mazenod College in Mulgrave, where he completed his HSC before commencing a Bachelor of Business and Marketing at Chisholm Institute.

“After graduating from university in 1984, I secured the position of Market Research Manager for Safeway/Woolworths,” Sean said. “I worked on new store development, and new product ranges in the frozen ice cream division where I launched a number of high-end ice cream brands for the company. “In 1988 I moved to Hong Kong to work with Thomas Cook. I travelled the world, setting up Thomas Cook Travel offices globally and resided for some period in India and Pakistan.”

Ten years after graduating from Chisholm Institute, Sean returned to Australia and commenced work with Ultra Tune. With a background in business and marketing, and a lifetime love of cars, the company was a perfect fit for Sean, something he says is vital to career advancement.
“You’ve got to love what you do. If you don’t, it will never progress to where you want it to. This can’t be under-estimated,” he said.

Formed in 1979, Ultra Tune expanded rapidly and in 1983 was split into state organisations (South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland) owned by local groups of franchisees. While the South Australian group remained independent until 2017, the three eastern states merged in 1988, and with expansion into Western Australia, they formed Ultra Tune Systems (Australia) Pty Ltd. In 1994 the business was purchased by Ultra Tune Australia Pty Ltd and has since grown to become one of Australia’s largest automotive franchise networks, with more than 270 franchise centres nationally.

Ultra Tune specialises in the maintenance and servicing of all makes and models of motor vehicles within the Australian market place. The business handles all vehicle servicing needs for popular mass-produced cars to specialist imported vehicles including, manufacturer’s handbook servicing, tuning, air-conditioning servicing and general repairs to both fleet and private motorists.
Since launching Ultra Tyres in 2013, Ultra Tune also supplies and fits high quality, affordable tyres for most vehicle types. The company’s roadside assistance program provides motorists with peace of mind, knowing if anything does happen while out on the road, assistance is never far away. Each of the company’s services is performed in a structured series of operating procedures, which ensures a faster and more cost-effective service for all parties.

As any business coach will tell you, a service provider must offer the market a Unique Selling Proposition and Sean is very aware of Ultra Tune’s competitive point of difference.
“At Ultra Tune we pride ourselves in being nimble and working on the cutting edge,” Sean said. “We invest heavily in our IT platforms and staff training. These key differences set us aside from our competition; we’re not scared of doing things differently. We did it back in the early days with our dyno-tuning and we continue the trend today with our controversial television commercials.
We’re different, we take pride in being different and we aspire to be different. “Our initial priority is to our franchisees and ultimately their customers. We are committed to providing customer service efficiently and competitively, operating with excellence, communicating with integrity, protecting and respecting our reputation, and staying at the forefront of the ever-evolving automotive service market.

“We are optimistic about the future and have set ourselves several goals, including raising the standard of service, enhancing consumer awareness, further developing a customer focused company ethos, increasing strategic alliances with other automotive leaders and remaining on the cutting edge of innovation. We know the consumer has choices and it is essential we strengthen our status and that of our franchisees.

“We have invested heavily in an ever-evolving franchisee and customer support IT platform, which already services more than 1500 customers daily. This provides immediate access to all facets of individual customer’s data and demographics, as it pertains to a vehicle’s servicing history. Our goal is to make the customer’s experience as personalised as possible.”

Sean says being denied access to vehicle manufacturer repair and servicing data has been Ultra Tune’s greatest threat, but he is optimistic about the future following the success of the AAAA’s Right To Repair campaign.

“Since I’ve been involved in the industry, the dealerships have always enjoyed an unfair advantage and over the last decade or so that has been in relation to quarantining critical diagnostic repair data,” Sean said. “That is going to change with the ACCC findings and ultimately changes to government legislation, meaning the dealers will no longer be able to fraudulently drive customers back to dealerships and price gouge due to a lack of competition bought about by an unfair playing field.

“There’s change in the wind and we’re gearing up to ensure we hit the ground running once the data flows freely.”
The importance of that victory cannot be understated, nor can the role of AAAA in supporting the interests of its members against the unfair business of large multi-national companies, says Sean.
“We believe it is important to have a central, independent and objective representative organisation that can speak on behalf of our industry. The AAAA provides that touch point,” Sean said.

With a successful business career spanning more than three decades, Sean has clearly made plenty of good business decisions, though the one he considers his finest may surprise you.
“I bought a (race) horse, Miss Andretti, back in 2006 and everyone told me it was a mistake. I believed otherwise and she went on to become the number one sprinting horse in the world in 2007. I still own her and am breeding from her and she still brings me a lot of pleasure,” he said. The 2007 Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year, Miss Andretti, won five Australian Group 1 races and is the only thoroughbred in history to simultaneously hold five track records in Australia and England. The latter occurred on 30 May 2007 when she smashed the course record in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Miss Andretti winning the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot

Despite his business and sporting success, things haven’t always gone Sean’s way. “I made a couple of poor business decisions when I was younger and consequently lost everything,” he said. “That was a really tough time in my life, but looking back on it now, it helped make me the person I am today by instilling persistence and determination in me. “It also made me value what I now have in my life, and helped me keep things in perspective and assist those who haven’t been as fortunate as me.”

Sean Buckley with the Ultra Tune rubber girls being interviewed

Away from work, Sean still enjoys horse racing, as well as watching the AFL and boxing.“I also take a keen interest in US politics,” he added.
Family also plays an important role in his life. “My brother (Clayton) and father have both passed away and my mother lives on the Sunshine Coast, where I visit her regularly,” Sean explained.
“I’m not married but I have three beautiful daughters and I try to spend as much time as I possibly can with them, despite my hectic work schedule.”