FERRARI will increase its Australian-New Zealand dealer numbers by 50 per cent as sales demand opens the door to new retail stores in Sydney, Melbourne and for the first time, the Gold Coast.

The three new Ferrari-only showrooms will join the existing five dealerships in Australia and one in New Zealand while the new Gold Coast site will be the second in Queensland, the state with the highest per-capita Ferrari ownership in Australia.

James Frizelle’s Automotive Group will represent Ferrari on the Gold Coast with a new showroom in Southport to be ready for business by July, while familiar faces McCarroll’s Automotive Group will expand to Sydney’s North Shore and Zagame Automotive Group will oversee the new showroom in Melbourne’s CBD.

James Frizelle’s Automotive Group CEO Brett Frizelle said that the Gold Coast deserved its own Ferrari dealership despite its relatively small population.

“In Queensland, 45 per cent of the (Ferrari) sales are on the Gold Coast, 45 per cent are in Brisbane and 10 per cent are outside those areas,” he said.

The Gold Coast is also home to Sanctuary Cove, a gated community on Hope Island north of Southport that has the highest concentration of Ferrari ownership in the country.

Frizelle’s already has an established presence on the Gold Coast, retailing for brands such as Mazda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Chrysler/Jeep, Audi, Isuzu Ute and Isuzu Trucks.

Ferrari sold a record 210 vehicles in 2017, representing an 11.7 per cent jump over 2016 and a continued period of growth for the Prancing Horse, and Mr Frizelle predicted the growth to continue.

“The demand is there. They (Ferrari) are in a very fortunate position that there probably aren’t many brands in the world where the demand is higher than the supply,” Mr Frizelle said.

“They do that very well. They can only build so many cars out of their factories ‘and they sell every one’ as in separate the word everyone, so there’s not an excess demand.”

Ferrari Australasia CEO Herbert Appleroth was also of the opinion that Ferrari would continue its upward trend in Australia, as befitting of a 50 per cent showroom expansion.

“The sky’s the limit in terms of sales, but it’s just our production capacity (that is a limiting factor),” he said.

“We’re in a very good sweet spot when it comes to fantastic product, fantastic dealer network, fantastic customer satisfaction, there’s nothing really that’s holding us back other than production capacity.

“But on the flip side of that, we’re very happy to limit the number of cars that come to the market. Resale value is absolutely key to us … we’re true to our founder’s resolve which was to always deliver at least one less (vehicle) than the demand.”

The new Gold Coast dealership will be located on the corner of High St and Johnston St in Southport, with Mr Frizelle’s wife Rebecca Frizelle to assume the role of dealer principal.

The new site will cover 540 square metres with the Frizelles currently liaising with Ferrari designers on the fit-out of the new venue.

Each new Ferrari dealership has a dedicated personalisation area, where customers can digitally option their own vehicle. Ferrari claims that it has two-to-three times the personalisation options of its main competitors.

New Sydney and Melbourne showroom sites will be constructed on existing dealerships, with the new Sydney site to encompass about 1200 square metres, sharing space with the existing McCarroll’s Maserati dealer on the Pacific Highway in Armaton.

Zagame’s Melbourne site will share premises with its Maserati Melbourne dealership on Victoria St in the CBD, and will cover about 500 square metres.

Dealer principals for the Sydney and Melbourne dealerships will be Simon McCarroll and Bobby Zagame, respectively.

The new dealers join the six existing Ferrari Australasia dealerships in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland.

By Robbie Wallis