He has also outlined plans to retain his 73 staff with a post-Holden proposal to take on new franchises under the name Metro Auto Barn.
The business, which will lose its Holden franchise on December 31 this year, is currently called Metro Holden. It aims to retain the service and repair for Holden owners and stock used Holdens for sale.
“I can’t let my staff go,” he said.
“So I’m talking this week with some franchisors and I have appointments with more next week.
“This site is very large so will need more than one franchise. It would be perfect if one of the larger companies could come here but Toyota has recently built a new multi-million dealership down the road and Ford is run by AP Eagers and is happy where it is.
“We’re now looking at everyone.”
Mr Torcaso said he had received advice from the court, via his lawyer, that he could now seek damages from Holden.
“I have employed a forensic accountant and I will make sure everything we are entitled to is accounted for in the claim,” he said.
He said he had the option of selling the property but was concerned about the future for his 73 staff.
“The staff have been great and there’s a strong morale here,” he said.
“They have been designing logos for the Auto Barn name. I intend to change the image of the place after Holden goes.”
Mr Torcaso’s Metro Holden was sacked by Holden along with about 30 other national dealers as part of a network reduction program.
He argued that his dealership was the fourth most profitable Holden dealership in the country and had a turnover in 2016 of $73 million.
He has been made a Grand Master Holden dealer, a recognition by General Motors internationally of outstanding performance as a dealer, 18 times in 20 years and most recently this year.
Torcaso attempted to block Holden’s decision to remove him as a dealer but that was overturned by the Federal Court.
In his affidavit, Mr Torcaso said Holden had made statements about his name and his succession plan for future dealer principals.
In a statement from Holden, the car company said it “strongly rejects the offensive and without-basis claims made by Metro Holden that Holden ended the relationship with Metro Holden based on racial or cultural grounds”.
“Holden has had a 40-year business and commercial relationship with Jack Torcaso; at no stage during this time has Mr Torcaso’s ethnicity ever been raised as an issue. In fact, Holden invited Mr Torcaso to participate in a closed tender in 2016 for a new dealership in Adelaide’s northeast, which would have further extended this relationship,” the statement said.
“We are disappointed in the issues and allegations raised by Metro Holden and stress that Holden has always acted in the best interest of our whole dealer network, particularly in South Australia.”
By Neil Dowling
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