Ela Motors expects big business from LNG project

mlipen Business, Main Stories

NATIONAL car dealer Ela Motors Toyota Tsusho (PNG) Ltd is venturing into the PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project through its staff.
 “In terms of investment in the LNG project, Ela Motors is investing in people … our own people. We are not investing directly in the project because that is not our core business,” David Purcell, chief executive officer of Ela Motors, said.
But with the large size of the project, Ela Motors will need to expand in terms of providing service and parts backup to the vehicles that will service the project.
But this did not mean Ela Motors would be immediately establishing new dealerships especially in the Highlands area but would continue to analyse and review the needs on a month to month basis.
Mr Purcell said Ela Motors did not have service or parts facilities located in Hides, Mendi or Tari in the Southern Highlands province –  the home of the US$15 billion(K40.6 billion) 6.3 metric tonne ExxonMobil-led LNG project.
“We have been analysing this opportunity for some time now and we will take the appropriate steps to meet our customer’s needs when the time is right and the business requires it,” Mr Purcell said, adding if a need arose for Ela Motors to do something different to provide the level of service that its customers needed they would find a way to do that.
“We see the LNG project as being a very important part of our business. We have two main objectives. These objectives are to look after the people who have looked after and supported Ela Motors for the last 46 years which is our core traditional business as well as looking after the LNG style of the business which is so important to us that we have created a separate division to manage the LNG projects and the contractors,” he said.
The Ela Motors LNG team is being led by a project manager and a coordinator as well as champions in the departments of sales, parts and service.
 “In that way we can give both parts of our business the attention they need. One part being our traditional core business and secondly the additional business which requires specific attention which is the LNG Project demands,” Mr Purcell said.