Dusty cowshed to iconic garage

Surrounded by tools and grease at a young age, Sandra Phillips was pretty much destined to be involved in the motor industry. The family business, Phillips Garage, was set up by her father John and is an icon in Tauranga. It’s been around for nearly 80 years, an MTA member since 1950, and has won a raft of MTA awards over the decades.

It was no surprise when Sandra took over the business and drove it to success with her practical, down-to-earth approach. More on that later.

When John Phillips arrived back from his WW2 tour of duty in the Solomon Islands, he gravitated to the family cowshed in

Tauranga and started tinkering with cars.

He fixed neighbours’, friends’ and family cars, and from agricultural beginnings a business grew.

“He was also buying and selling them because there was a shortage of cars back then and his brother Ray joined him, and they decided to rent cars and eventually built the garage,” Sandra says.

A pump was put in to supply gas to the rentals and the public.

Following footsteps

Meanwhile Sandra was hanging out at the workshop and enjoyed her dad’s company and the work he was doing so much that she decided to follow his footsteps.

“I started a parts apprenticeship with the Ford dealer in Tauranga and then I was a sales rep on the road. It gave me good skills, especially back then. It hardened me up, I was the first female at the business and the first female out on the road,” she says.

Those were generally good days, but there was an element of resentment from some customers and one memorable customer who refused to interact with her altogether because she was a woman.

“He wouldn’t talk to me; he would rather talk to someone who had started yesterday than deal with me, but I got my own back years later.

“He came in here one day because he was an engine reconditioner and was looking for some work and I said, ‘Do you remember me?’

“What goes around comes around,” she says.

After a stint overseas, Sandra returned in 1983 and John offered her a job at the garage.

Minimum wage and board

Despite offers from other businesses she listened to her heart and went to work with her dad.

“Basically, I worked for minimum wage and lived at home.”

Ray retired from the business, and two years later her dad took an overseas trip and left Sandra in charge. When he returned, they had a heart-to-heart.

“I felt the rental cars were holding us back and took a lot of commitment with not much profit and he agreed the boom years had gone. We had a rental licence to sell, and Avis came along and offered to buy the fleet and the licence, which was brilliant timing,” she says. They expanded the garage workshop and Sandra took ownership in 1991, with John helping out until he passed away in 2001.

“Dad was very good at stepping aside and at encouraging me, when people came in and wanted to talk to the boss, he pointed at me.

“I worked into owning it; I took very little in wages and eventually it was put in my name in 1991,” she says.

Creating local celebs

On an overseas trip in the 1980s, John Phillips spotted waving mannequins at a business in the UK and was taken with the idea of having one for the garage. On his return, he sourced an old shop mannequin, fitted a wiper motor to the arm, named it Joe and placed it out the front to wave to passing trade.

The addition to the business soon became a local celebrity and has featured in the local newspaper over the years.

Sandra says the idea her dad had was to have a side business selling waving mannequins and pretty soon a female version, Josephine, was created to keep Joe company. The locals went crazy over them - the newspaper came up with the idea the mechanical couple should get married, and the public loved it.

Josephine has since been retired, but Joe is still out front every day greeting customers.

“It’s the best form of marketing we could have done; everyone knows the mechanical man,” Sandra says.

MEMBER PROFILE: PHILLIPS GARAGE, TAURANGA

Women in business

Drawing on her own experience, Sandra was part of a group who set up a Tauranga ‘Women in Business’ in the 1990s to provide support to women in the automotive industry.

“It was really good because I remember one girl who was getting a really hard time in the parts department and the girls gave her tips on how to deal with it,” she says.

The group had guest speakers and helped create similar organisations around the country.

Attitudes have changed over the years Sandra says, but there’s still room for improvement.

Longevity

When 2026 rolls around, Phillips Garage will have been in business on the same block of land in Tauranga for 80 years, which is an achievement Sandra is proud to be part of. Her recipe for success: “Communication, customer loyalty, looking after staff, sticking to your principles. It isn’t easy, there are challenges as you go with it and learn on the job.

“But it was something I wanted to be, my dad wasn’t the sort of person to expect women to stay in the kitchen. His view was pretty much do whatever you are interested in.”

Phillips garage already holds the mantle of Tauranga’s longest-serving automotive centre with over 75 years in the trade and Sandra has no plans to step away just yet.

When that day comes, her hope is that it will go to someone who shares the same commitment to customers and the industry that she has.

“I have plenty of energy and have always maintained that I didn’t want the business to kill me. I haven’t made plans yet, but I am thinking about it.”

SANDRA’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Communication, customer loyalty, looking after staff, sticking to your principles.

Sandra is a long-serving member of the local MTA branch, on that branch’s Executive Committee for 19 years, and held the position of both vice-president and president. She has established a women’s network for MTA members and was awarded honorary membership of the Tauranga Branch in 2010.

As a nominated MTA business mentor, Sandra has shared her experiences and business skills with others in the industry.

In 2006 she was awarded the distinction of being admitted to the membership as a Fellow of the MTA