The Ateco GroupPage | 1

The Ateco Group

  • Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd
/
  • The Ateco Group New Zealand

  • European Automotive Imports
/
  • European Automotive Imports – South Africa

  • Branded Financial Services Pty Ltd
/
  • Ateco Properties Pty Ltd

ROGER ZAGORSKI APPOINTED MANAGING DIRECTOR OF

THE ATECO GROUP OF COMPANIES

Roger Zagorski has been appointed Managing Director of the Ateco group of companies, replacing Ric Hull who has retired but will continue as a director of the leading automotive importer that is owned by Executive Chairman, Neville Crichton.

Roger Zagorski (47) joined Ateco in 2010 to set up and run the Ateco subsidiary Branded Financial Services which provides a wide range of customer and dealer financial services in Australia and New Zealand. The company has proven a major success for Ateco under Zagorski’s leadership, with a portfolio valued in excess of $150 million with more than 5,000 customers across Australia and New Zealand.

“Roger has a proven record as a senior manager with a strategicapproach to planning and running automotive businesses,” says Neville Crichton, Executive Chairman of the Ateco group of companies. “This makes him the ideal choice to succeed Ric Hull, who not only brought in major new business opportunities for Ateco, such as Kia and our Chinese brands, but who has also given Ateco a sound organisational structure, enabling it to maximise business opportunities in the ever-changing automotive market.”

Ateco has built its reputation on successful introduction and management of automotive brands in Australia, New Zealand and, most recently South Africa. It has done this withits practical expertise combined with agility to change and adapt to new market circumstances. The company has been successful with brands and companies right across the full spectrum of the car and commercial vehicle market including many of the world’s leading brands.

“Ric Hull has played a key role in the success of Ateco over the past 16 years,” says Neville Crichton. “He transformed Kia sales from less than 5,000 units a year to more than 26,000 per annum.Hesteered Ateco as the first – and most successful – company to bring Chinese vehicles to Australia and New Zealand. I am especially pleased that he has agreed to continue as a director of the company.His advice and support will be invaluable to both Roger and me as we move forward.”

Roger Zagorski entered the car industry in 1996 as part of the start-up team for Mercedes-Benz Finance Australia. In 2004,he moved to New Zealand to assume the role of ManagingDirector of DaimlerChrysler Financial Services there and in 2007 he took-on the responsibilities for all aspects of the German company’s New Zealand operation as the Managing Director Executive General Manager of Mercedes Benz New-Zealand.

“Ateco’s core strength is our flexibility and adaptability to shifting market conditions. This, along with our unique range of brands makes Atecoan exciting and interesting place to work,” says Mr Zagorski. “I am excited about Ateco’s future. My aim is to strategically build on thesestrengths to allow Ateco to continue playing a significant role in the continuously more dynamic automotive industry. This will involve working in the best interests of the dealers we work with, the brands we represent and of course, our Ateco team”

Polish-born Roger Zagorski lives in Sydney and is married with two teenage children.

(ENDS)

The Ateco group of companies
Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd

  • Headquarters in Sydney with branchoffices in Melbourne and Brisbane
  • Distributes LDV, Ssangyong, Chery, Foton, Foton Trucks in Australia

The Ateco Group New Zealand

  • Headquarters in Mt Wellington, Auckland
  • Distributes Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Alfa Romeo, Foton Utes and Chery in New Zealand

European Automotive Imports

  • Headquarters in Sydney
  • Distributes Maserati in Australia and New Zealand

European Automotive Imports – South Africa

  • Headquarters in Johannesburg
  • Distributes Maserati in South Africa, owns Maserati retail businesses in Johannesburg and Cape Town

American Special Vehicles

  • A joint venture company with the Walkinshaw Group with production faculties in Melbourne and marketing and sales headquarters in Sydney
  • Imports, remanufactures RAM products to RHD and distributes for sale in Australia and New Zealand

Branded Financial Services Pty Ltd

  • Headquarters in Sydney
  • Provides dealer and retail financial services in Australia and New Zealand

Ateco Properties

  • Headquarters in Sydney
  • Manages properties in Australia and New Zealand

NEVILLE CRICHTON CNZM

Executive Chairman, The Ateco Group

Neville Crichton’s business and sporting careers are unique, with the New Zealand-born businessman developing and growing the Ateco group of companies into one of the largest independent locally owned car importers and, at the same time, carving a sporting career first as a car racing driver and then as an internationally renowned ocean racing yachtsman.

Neville Crichton began his business life in New Zealand, working first with Ford before moving to the USA where his retail and wholesale interests included Ferrari, Mazda, Volkswagen, Audi and Rolls Royce. In 1985 he took over Ateco, a small general engineering and import business, and has, over the intervening years making it the right company for car makers wishing to independently grow and develop their Australian and New Zealand businesses. Brands that have sought Ateco’s resources and skills in past have includedSuzuki, Volkswagen, Citroen, Ferrari, Audi and Kia. Under Ateco in Australia and the Ateco group in New Zealand as well as its sister company, European Automotive Imports are a unique range of brands, from the exclusiveMaserati brand, through premium brandssuch as Alfa Romeo, Chrysler and Jeep, to the Chinese brands, first Great Wall in 2010,Chery in 2011, Foton in 2013 and LDV in 2015.

Based in a $38 million facility in Sydney, The Ateco Group oversees the distribution of Maserati, Chery, and Foton, throughout Australia and New Zealand and Ssangyong in Australia. Its Equipment Division distributes WARN off road equipment and RidePRO suspension and a property division is responsible for a range of commercial and retail buildings.The company also handles Maserati in South Africa which it operated both the distribution and two retail businesses and in New Zealand Ateco represents Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Neville Crichton has also played a central and decisive role in creating New Zealand’s super yacht construction industry which, through his foresight and expertise has grown from literally nothing to a billion dollar business that enjoys a worldwide reputation for design, quality and technology

Alongside his impressive business career, Neville Crichton has also enjoyed considerable sporting success. This started as a car racing driver in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, but his real passion is ocean racing and with three generations of yacht carrying the ‘Alfa Romeo’ name, as part of sponsorship programme in Europe, he won 174 ocean yacht races in Europe, America and Australia including the Rolex Sydney Hobart, the Rolex Fastnet, the TransPac and every title that was available in the Rolex Giraglia Trophy in just seven years.

For further information, please contact

Neville Crichton CNZM
Executive Chairman / Tel: (02) 8577 8000
The Ateco Group / Fax: (02) 8577 8199
E:
Edward Rowe
The Ateco Group / Tel: (02) 8577 8015
Fax: (02) 8577 3555
Mob: 0407 913 244
E:
ATECO AUTOMOTIVE PTY LTD
Street Address: 862 – 874 Elizabeth Street, Waterloo, Sydney, NSW 2017Australia. Postal Address: Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd,Locked Bag 5018, Alexandria NSW 2015, AustraliaA.B.N. 34 000 486 706
Ateco Media web site: