FROM the very beginning upliftment has always been a part of the Tavcor journey. Now, 70 years later, the Tavcor Motor Group continues to invest into the region and its people by serving the community with values-based leadership and a progressive, people-centered approach to business.
In recent years Tavcor has become known for its environmentally friendly buildings and practices as well as the motivated staff complement of 280 Tavcor employees across the Port Elizabeth and George dealerships, serving customers with commitment and passion – values which have been part of the dealership since the very beginning.
Previously known as Embassy Motors, the now multi-facetted dealership has a strong heritage in Port Elizabeth, where it was established in North End in 1950 as one of the first Volkswagen dealerships in South Africa.
In 1961 the dealership was bought by Ray Taverner, who started the legacy of this iconic family values-based business in the city.
Having spent more than 40 of the 70 years of existence at the company, Tavcor Motor Group Chairman Alan Taverner, has a forward-looking approach to the business and grew it exponentially over the decades, with huge investments made in both buildings and people in the Eastern and South Western Cape.
“In motor retail, it is the dealer’s responsibility to invest in properties that mirror the brand. In our case, we’ve viewed this obligation as a means of leveraging our market share. Over the years we have enjoyed a dominant market share in part because of our reinvestment into facilities, and also into the business,” said Taverner.
The Tavcor Motor Group has in recent years invested extensively in infrastructure and buildings – with a R13-million revamp of their Mount Road building in 2013, the greenfields construction of the flagship William Moffett Expressway dealerships, as well as the most recent investment of R5.6-million into a solar project at three PE dealerships.
Plans are already underway to expand the solar project to the remaining Tavcor dealerships in PE and George.
Tavcor further reduces its carbon footprint by conserving water: all the Tavcor dealerships’ wash bays use rain-harvested water.
To date over 10-million litres of harvested rainwater has been used by Enterprise Development entity, Siyoyisa – a multipurpose business which was initiated by Tavcor as a supplier entity in 2010 to manage the wash bays and cleaning services of the group.
Siyoyisa employs 38 people across the various sites of the Tavcor business in Nelson Mandela Bay and George. Shareholders in Siyoyisa, and Tavcor’s other Enterprise Development entity, Tavcor Repair Zone (TRZ), are all employees of the Tavcor Motor Group.
“One of our core company values is sustainability, as we believe in developing a sustainable, growing and compliant company that is a good corporate citizen and an employer of choice,” said Tavcor Motor Group Human Resources Director, Megan Stow.
Investing into people through skills development and apprenticeship programmes is a cornerstone of the Tavcor Motor Group’s people-centered approach to business.
“We have a strong talent pipeline at any given time in the business, with a great absorption rate. We currently have 27 apprentices, of which eight have since qualified, and in 2019/2020 we had 16 YES candidates working in the business. In addition, we had ten sales executives on a learnership programme and of them, seven are still part of the Tavcor family,” said Stow.
Image: Tavcor Motor Group Executive Team – From left to right: Garrick Bowker, Clint Seafield, Paul Balmer, Megan Stow, John Els, Lynn Packirie, Christopher Botha, Alan Taverner (Chairperson), Martin Taverner, Lisa Hundleby, Bjorn von Bochove