Some dynasties hold crowns. Patterson Cheney holds trucks.
The family business has operated in Victoria for 110 years, an impressive lineage which has been sustained through brick-and-mortar growth.
Over the past century and change, Patterson Cheney has served as an intermediary between a range of commercial vehicle manufacturers and local customers in what are now 14 distinct locations.
The business’ most recent pursuit of expansion in trucks, has been the opening of an Isuzu dealership in Pakenham — a suburb in Victoria’s southeast — which has sought to bring the brand’s tailored services to a budding commercial area.
And, according to Patterson Cheney Trucks Isuzu General Manager, John Elliot, it’s been a long time coming.
“The idea for this site has been in the pipeline for ten years,” he says.
“We’ve wanted to develop further out in the state for quite some time, and the whole Pakenham area — even heading out into Gippsland — is a growth corridor.”
John adds, “There is a lot of residential expansion happening in the area and its surrounding suburbs, and businesses are starting to migrate here, too.”
While the idea to enter the Pakenham market may have been a decade in the making, specific construction of the site took three years, which included the purchasing of the site’s land, construction planning, receiving relevant approvals, appointing builders and more.
The designing and building of the site were helmed under the idea that the demand for the space and its amenities would grow with time.
“Trying to optimise the design and build of the site was a compromise between constructing something big enough for things like customer parking and truck displays and constructing something that would give us the option to upsize in the future,” John explains.
“This site has been built for our business to grow into.”
The facility currently provides customers with a comprehensive sales, service, parts and support experience, delivered through a wide range of amenities.
Covering 12,143m², the site features a workshop equipped with 12 truck bays, two 26-metre service pits, an inground roller brake tester and a full-length overhead gantry crane.
Additionally, there is a dual wash bay with a drive-over underbody truck washer, along with other features which properly showcase genuine truck parts and accessories, like a mezzanine parts level and a 60m² parts showroom.
While these resources equip the facility to cater to many customer needs, the physical location of Patterson Cheney’s Isuzu dealership is an asset in its own right. It was selected to maximise customer access and convenience.
“I think our site’s location is really what sets it apart,” John says.
“We’re on the corner of McGregor Road and Southeast Boulevard, just off the M1 Highway, so customers can enter and exit our site with ease. That space and access is really important, as our customers are handling heavy vehicles which can be hard to manoeuvre in certain areas.”
The facility’s placement by a major highway also provides Patterson Cheney with great exposure to motorists and prospective customers alike.
“The site is on the new, industrial side of Pakenham, and the amount of traffic that drives past us is huge,” John continues.
“We get a lot of eyes on the dealership this way. Customers can see our full offering of Isuzu trucks, as well as trucks from our other manufacturers being MAN and Western Star Trucks. And when it comes to servicing, our capabilities aren’t limited to those brands at all.”
Furthermore, the Pakenham facility enjoys a strong connection to Patterson Cheney’s flagship Isuzu dealership in Keysborough, a nearby suburb.
This is a massive plus, as the two sites can share resources and expertise as needed.
“We have customers that get trucks serviced in both Keysborough and Pakenham,” John continues.
“The placement of our Pakenham site was all about making it easy for customers to come to us.”
Such a placement has seemingly paid dividends for the dealership chain throughout the year.
Since its opening in January, Patterson Cheney’s Isuzu dealership in Pakenham has experienced incremental growth.
John and his team are very happy with the performance and have specifically attributed it to the patterns of industry demand.
“We officially launched in February and every month since then we’ve seen more and more business. We’re starting to properly grow our customer base.”
The Pakenham facility has been growing its team in pace with the gradual uptick in customer demand.
“Some of these technicians are local and the opportunity to work closer to home has been a real drawcard, while others were picked from a bit further away, we have recently added an MAN technician from the United Kingdom who starts this month,” John says.
“Bringing this skillset into the business is very exciting. We’re always on the hunt for more talent and would love to add more Pakenham locals to our team.”
The Pakenham facility’s growth has also helped Patterson Cheney integrate with the suburb’s local community.
Much of this integration has come in the form of sponsoring local clubs — a Pakenham netball team, a junior rugby league team and a junior AFL team over the winter, with more to be supported in the upcoming summer.
For John, the opportunity to interact with the community is critical.
“I think giving back is the key to long-term success,” he says. “That’s something we have always been very big on at Patterson Cheney.”
Furthering the truck industries reach into Pakenham is Penske Truck Rental opening its first standalone facility in Pakenham — also the first in the southern hemisphere and second facility in Melbourne — in early September.
The Penske facility offers a range of medium- and heavy-duty prime movers and rigids from MAN and Western Star Trucks.
John and the Patterson Cheney team believe this presence will attract even more traffic and interest to Pakenham and, moreover, signals great confidence in the suburb’s automotive growth John says.
“Having this brand come into the area is a vote of confidence for Pakenham. It shows consumers and operators that this is a viable place for business.”
