MAZDA Australia has been rewarded by an appreciative head office for a world-best market share with a spectacular new head office that features a canteen with Peter Rowland cuisine, free parking for its 210 staff, a heritage car collection and even giant, sound-absorbing chairs for quiet phone hook ups.

All this is contained within Mazda’s new multi-million dollar headquarters in Mulgrave – a fast-growing car hub Melbourne’s south-east – that has been ticked off by Mazda management in Hiroshima to celebrate Australian sales exceeding 10 per cent.

New Mazda headquarters – Click to enlarge

Mazda Motor Corporation (MMC) board member and number two officer in the company, Akira Marumoto, looked around him and joked to those at the opening ceremony: “Nice facility. Looks expensive! I think you need to accelerate your sales more!”

But he said the people at Mazda Australia had “earned this building and they deserve this building” by achieving a market share far beyond anything Mazda had achieved in any other developed market in the world.

Akira Marumoto

In an exclusive interview with GoAutoNews Premium, Mr Marumoto referred to now retired former managing director of Mazda Australia Malcolm Gough and present managing director Martin Benders who had both worked with MMC in Japan for many years to help MMC understand the initiatives that underwrote Australia’s market success.

“This building is the reward really for such a great effort by Mr Gough and Mr Benders for their hard work,” he said.

Mr Marumoto said Mazda’s performance today was a far cry from when it sold just 88 three-wheeled vehicles in its first five years in Australia.  Australia was the first country in the world outside Japan to open a Mazda sales office.  

The new Australian headquarters, which is leased from the developer, will open for business next month. The project involved a three-year process; two years to work out the requirements and a year to build.

“We made a decision to have a purpose-built premises in Mulgrave rather than renovate the existing building in Mount Waverley. The costs were about the same.

“The Mount Waverley site was purpose built for Mazda Australia when we had around 130 employees and was still selling around 27,000 vehicles a year.

“In 2015 we achieved record annual sales of 114,000 vehicles and we now have around 200 staff which necessitated the move to this more appropriate facility in Wellington Road, Mulgrave.“

Martin Benders

Mr Benders said the building complements the investment by Mazda’s dealers who, in the five years from 2010, spent $160 million establishing or renovating dealerships to attract customers and improve efficiencies.

He said the building was a reflection of “the optimism and confidence we have in the Mazda brand as a key player in the new and evolving automotive landscape in Australia”.

The site of the new office in Mulgrave, which is home to a growing number of automotive brands, was chosen for its close proximity to the the present office in Mount Waverley.

The reception hall features a vast glass gallery and showroom which Mazda will use for displaying both current and heritage cars.

Mazda will be the only Australian-based, top-five car distributor with a fleet of restored cars from its past and the new building includes a workshop exclusively devoted to a full-time restoration expert who is restoring cars in the company’s growing car collection.

Mr Benders said the heritage car gallery would be used in a variety of different ways and is a great tool to show Mazda’s history.

New Mazda headquarters – Click to enlarge

“Using the gallery for displaying restored cars would be a permanent feature,” he said. “We have the space to house five or six restored cars and we see this as important to showing Mazda’s past.

“It also allows us to feature cars that we have restored in future launches, for advertising purposes and as general displays.

“For example, we would showcase the first MX-5 against the latest model for comparisons.”

Parking for all staff was also high on Mr Benders’ priorities. He said the new property features 250 car spaces for employees, compared with no onsite staff parking available in the old premises. He said there were improved efficiencies in avoiding long searches for parking in surrounding streets and staff leaving the office to move cars on timed street parking areas.

There are now also 37 visitor parking spaces available, compared with just five at the old building.

New Mazda headquarters – Click to enlarge

The catering facilities were awarded to highly-regarded Melbourne caterer, Peter Rowland, after tenders were opened last year.

It gives staff top-tier food options which don’t require cash payments, one swipe of their security card and the cost of the food is deducted from the employee’s wages.

Staff also have access to giant conference chairs – designed to reduce the sound of their voices to other staff –  for private mobile phone calls without leaving the office. These are used for one-on-one face-to-face discussions without the need to tie up conference rooms and other similarly designed chairs can seat up to six people.

The building includes an auditorium and a large purpose-built studio with curved walls for shooting videos and for the production of sales photography, which will bring this activity in-house.

The facility includes extensive workshops and training areas for apprentices and for on-going training of technicians.

By Neil Dowling and John Mellor

New Mazda headquarters – Click to enlarge