New BMW dealership comes with new generation of leader

A LITTLE over nine months after her father cajoled her into joining the family business, Charmain Kwee says her eyesight has gotten worse. She blames her mobile phone, which is the first thing she turns to after waking up.

Unlike the typical 26-year-old though, the executive director of Eurokars Group, the largest privately-held auto business in Singapore, starts her day with email instead of TikTok.

“While I have an office, I don’t really sit down because of business functions, business dinners and lunches. You’re really just everywhere, but people still need you at the same time, so they’re always calling you, texting you, emailing you,” she told The Business Times (BT). “Basically I’m always on my phone.”

Kwee made her first official appearance in her new role at a press event on Sep 30, a day before Eurokars opened the doors to a temporary new showroom at 11, Leng Kee Road, becoming the second authorised BMW dealer here in the process.

The move came less than five months after the German luxury carmaker made it public that Eurokars would handle the brand alongside Performance Motors, a Sime Darby unit.

While her father, executive chairman Karsono Kwee, looked on, the younger Kwee launched the new business with a short speech about Eurokars’ long relationship with BMW Group, which started when she was just seven years old.

“It was nerve wracking. When I went up there, the thing that hit me was that everything has finally come to fruition: all the months of hard work to get everything together, all the effort from the team,” she said. “It was quite surreal to just be there and think, ‘This moment’s really happening.’”

While Kwee allowed herself to savour the moment, she said her basic nature doesn’t allow her to relax. “As a person, I can’t really sit and do nothing,” she said. Working at Eurokars should suit her just fine, then. Apart from BMWs, the group sells cars from Mini and Rolls-Royce (themselves owned by BMW Group), mainstream brands Mazda and MG, and supercar labels McLaren and Pagani. It recently formed a joint venture with Porsche to retail the brand’s speedy machines next year.

Eurokars also holds Maserati and Ferrari franchises in Indonesia, and is active in Australia with Mazda as well as China with Rolls-Royce.

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With all that to take in, Kwee said that having a hand in building the new BMW dealership gave her an intimate look at how the company’s wheels turn. “At this point, I’m like a sponge, right? So it’s information overload for me, which is great,” she said. “I think it’s good to see when things are building up from scratch, rather than just dropping in from the top.”

Privately, executives from BMW Asia say Kwee is energetic and has excellent chemistry with the team there, while colleagues describe her as a hard worker who gets her hands dirty. But while she gets to leave the office each day, she doesn’t get to leave work. “Being in a family business means ultimately, my boss is at home,” she said.

That boss is the redoubtable Karsono Kwee, who started the business from scratch in 1985. Employees say the 74-year-old entrepreneur has a head for numbers and an eye for detail; in his showrooms, the car logos on every wheel have to be the right way up.

“He asks me questions, so our family dinners will be like, ‘Oh, today how many?’” she said, referring to the sales numbers that keep a car dealership going. “Then in your head you’re like, ‘Oh, no, how many!’ I think over time I’ve learned to treat that as part of my life.”

Kwee had to give up a budding law career to join Eurokars in January this year, at her father’s prompting. “She really loves doing law (work),” her father told BT, chuckling. “But I kept asking her, ‘When are you going to help me? You know how old I am?’”

“The reason why I left law to come into business was honestly to spend more time with my dad,” the younger Kwee said. “I guess I had this mindset that with every job, of course there’s going to be woes, so why am I giving my blood, sweat and tears for someone who is not my dad? I do miss law, but at the same time, I couldn’t live with myself if I were to stay in law without helping my dad out.”

There is much to help with. Eurokars is still putting the final touches to its new, 100,000 square foot corporate headquarters at Kung Chong Road, after long pandemic-induced delays.

Having just opened its new BMW showroom, it is busy building a permanent home for the brand that will open in the second quarter of next year. When that happens, it will retail used BMWs at 11 Leng Kee Road, meaning the present showroom will barely be used for a year before having to be repurposed. Eurokars has a new space planned for Rolls-Royce as well.

The elder Kwee could well be as famous for investing in buildings as he is for collecting car brands. “I always believe that if you feel comfortable inside a showroom, you’ll feel comfortable buying a car,” he told BT.

For her part, his daughter has spent much of her time so far at Eurokars on what she calls “location readiness”, meaning she is dedicated to making sure each brand’s retail space is up to scratch, even as the showrooms keep moving. If her eyesight has deteriorated this year, she at least shares some of her father’s vision.