Lei Shing Hong, which loosely translates into “lucky star”, first made a splash in local auto waters with its relatively recent purchase of the factory-owned Mercedes-Benz stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. A quiet achiever, it has been getting on with the job of bedding down and building up the acquired businesses.

It is a private company which claims the luxury of being a patient investor. This and its overseas operations sets it apart from other major listed auto groups operating in Australia.

The company believes it is in a unique position to offer employees not only the most spectacular dealerships to work in as it rolls out “destination retail experience dealerships” like its new Breakfast Creek Wharf complex in Brisbane next month, it can also leverage off its international affiliates to offer overseas experience for Australian staff.

The managing director of LSH Auto Group Australia, John Good, told GoAutoNews Premium: “One of the goals of consolidating the group here is to become the employer of choice so that, as we build ourselves, obviously we can springboard on our international strength in the premium automotive sector and really attract key talent.

“Certainly one of the things that we want to leverage is the ability to offer personal growth which could potentially include posts in other markets, whether it is to young trainees or graduates. We can offer a long-term career path within the organisation and part of that could be international postings,” he said.

“I think the opportunity for international experience offers a much broader depth of career and it allows us to take all that experience and, where it is required, choose the best expert to operate in various markets.

“As a group we are considering bringing in young people, in front-line, technical and service fields, give them the right levels of training and right levels of experience and help them to develop a long-term career path within the group.

“A testament to our philosophy of developing talent is the fact many of the senior management team of LSH Auto have long career histories with the company and have operated in more than one market.

“We want the LSH Group to be seen as a desirable place to work.”

In Australia, as part of its purchase of the three Mercedes-Benz factory stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, LSH has 11 outlets in the three cities – including airport branches and body repair.

In 2018, LSH Group Australia sold more than 5600 new vehicles, 771 vans, 6300 pre-owned vehicles, serviced 104,580 vehicles and generated a revenue of $A800 million. It has about 500 employees.

Mr Good said: “We are in most of the major markets of the world but we are very low-profile. We prefer to fly under the radar. We haven’t had a strong focus on promoting ourselves and it is really part of the philosophy to let our actions rather than words dictate our success.”

By John Mellor

Mercedes-Benz Shanghai