October 15, 2014
Thirty years ago Bill and Rhonda Hull bought a car dealership in Knight Street, Kingaroy.
“It was October 1984,” Bill recalled this week. “It was the existing Mazda dealership but in reality it was not much more than a mechanical workshop.”
It quickly became a real family business for Bill and Rhonda.
The couple had two mechanics on the payroll but did just about everything else themselves.
Bill still remembers his first sale of a new car with pride.
“It was a Mazda 929 and it was bought by Tony Dicks from Kumbia,” he said.
Over the next five years, the couple slowly built the business up, putting on another mechanic and an employee to handle spare parts.
In 1985, they added the Subaru dealership and in 1986, the Daihatsu dealership.
In October 1989, the Hulls made a big step, leaving Knight Street to move into new premises on the corner of Avoca and Kingaroy streets.
“We just kicked off from there,” Bill said.
The Bill Hull Car Centre building has since been extended three times as the business continued to grow.
A few years ago, the couple turned the existing workshop into a Mazda showroom and constructed a new, much larger workshop at the rear of the building.
Bill and Rhonda permanently retired from the business in 2011, handing over the reins to their daughter Jacqui and her husband Brett Trace.
However, Bill hasn’t been able to keep away lately, helping out in the build-up to the business’s 30th birthday celebrations this weekend.
From 8:30am on Saturday there will be a free barbecue, food, drinks, a jumping castle and showbags at the dealership to help celebrate the big anniversary.
Hamish from HOT-FM will also be broadcasting from the site.
UPDATE 10:00pm: To top off a big week for the business, Bill Hull Car Centre this evening won the “Medium Business” award category at the inaugural Heritage Business Excellence Awards presented at Kingaroy Town Hall.
