in Atlantic Canada with the new Honda image. In June 2015, the Centennial Auto Group took over Clarke Motors in Charlottetown, rebranding it Centennial Nissan of Char- lottetown. In 2016, they expanded into Moncton, purchas- ing another collision center, and took ownership of Centen- nial Mazda of Charlottetown in June of last year. That same month, we opened a state of the art motorcycle facility on Sherwood Road, also adding a quality pre-owned vehicle center named Centennial Certified of Charlottetown. Just this year in May, the Centennial Auto Group opened Cen- tennial Nissan of Summerside on Pope Road and we added Centennial Kia in July of 2017.” When Tyler heard what I thought was a subdued and out of earshot “wow” come from me over the phone that morning in early July, hewas againquick to sing thepraises of hiswork family. “It’s our employees – the team – that makes this all happen. When it comes to our staff, we are like one big family; some of the greatest friendships I have are with our teammembers. I often tell people that respect goes both ways. If I can’t show a team member utmost respect, then I personally do not deserve their respect. Our values are very family-ori- ented, and we want to make sure that our team members have values that align with ours. We make sure that mutual respect is present between our teams. I think as far as the ownership being local, this brings a lot of security and pride to the team. We have over 100 employees in our group.” The entire six-Kember management team – Ira, Ezra, Tim, David, Robert, and Tyler – has adopted what they call the CENT (Caring, Ethical, Never-ending improvement, Teamwork) approach. “It’s pretty simple,” Tyler explained. “Our core values revolve around the acronym CENT. CARING means that we will treat customers and fellow team mates the way we want to be treated. ETHICAL means we will not do anything in business today that will potentially cost us loyalty tomorrow. NEVER-ENDING IMPROVEMENT means we will take every opportunity to learn and grow, and be the best we can be. AndTEAMWORKmeans thatwewill provideconsistent support to our customers and teammates, while working together and having fun. I think it’s a winning combo. In just a few short years we have become the largest automotive group ever on PEI.” “The internet has obviously created a huge impact in every industry and the pre-owned vehicle and motor- sports worlds are definitely not an exception. We’re always looking for ways to make our main sites – Centennialauto- group.ca, Centennialcarstar.com, and Centennialast.com – user-friendly and visually pleasing – our websites have to be nothing but the best. We also believe that we have to be very strong in social media because the industry is con- stantly changing – which is honestly one of the things that make it so fun.” Consistent support requires a different touch these days, Tyler explained.
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JULY 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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