Automotive News Canada - March 2021-v2 - 18

* MARCH 2021

Cancer claims community-minded Ontario retailer
'He is what I would
wish every dealer
would be. He set
a good example
for any dealer'
By PERRY LEFKO

TORONTO CORESPONDENT

BRENTWOOD MAITLAND
Lewis is remembered as a
businessman who shunned the
spotlight but served as a powerful role model for the industry.
" If there is a dealer in
Canada with more integrity than Brent, I haven't met
him, " said AutoIQ Chairman

Mike Stollery, who was partners with Lewis and his sister Judith Kovala in two Ford
stores in Northern Ontario.
AutoIQ has 17 stores.
" He was as honest as could
be in any business and a great
guy, so straight up. He was a
valued previous member of
Ford Dealer Roundtable. "
Lewis died Jan. 25 after a
yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 61.
Lewis was the general
manager/dealer principal
of Maitland Ford-Lincoln in
Sault Ste. Marie, 700 kilometres northwest of Toronto,
and the dealer principal of
Northern Lights Ford Sales
Ltd. in Wawa, 200 kilometres
farther to the north.

Brentwood Maitland Lewis
was described as a hard
worker and someone who
valued relationships.
P H O T O V I A L E W I S FA M I LY

Lewis joined his father,
Maitland, and mother,
Kathryn, in 1984 in the family
business after graduating from
Lakehead Superior University

with a Masters of Business
Administration. He began as
general manager of the FordLincoln store and then succeeded his father as the dealer principal. In 2014, the Lewis
family bought Northern Lights
Ford and Lewis became the
dealer principal.
" He liked business and he
liked people, " said Kovala,
who joined the family business in 1997 and works at
Maitland Ford-Lincoln as dealership operations/young drivers manager.
" It was all about relationships with Brent, " she said.
" He loved talking to people,
and he was very smart when it
came to business as well with
his accounting background.

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2021

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He worked 12 hours every day.
He was just very dedicated to
the business. He was usually
the last one out at night. "
Kovala said her brother
was an active member of his
church and the community
as a former president of the
Rotary Club.
AutoIQ will create a Brent
Lewis Northern Ontario
Scholarship at the Automotive
Business School of Canada in
Barrie.
" He never sought the limelight and that was by his
choice, " said Stollery. " He was
a humble, respectful man. He
is what I would wish every
dealer would be. He set a good
example for any dealer. "
- ANC

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initial contact (typically
online), through negotiating, appraising trade-ins,
arranging financing and
delivering the car to the
buyer's home.
" Our administration and
marketing departments
have all been downsized,
and I don't see them resuming " their previous size,
Boquist said.
Total employee count
at his four dealerships
dropped to 315 during the
pandemic from a high of 390
said Boquist, who is 2020-21
chairman of the Canadian
Automobile Dealers
Association. He expects that
once the industry recovers, the total staff count will
settle in at 335 to 340, off 15
per cent from pre-pandemic levels.
Another way to cut fixed
costs is to substantially
reduce the amount of inventory on hand, said J.D.
Power's Karwel. While dealers still need to keep a small
inventory of vehicles to service the occasional walkin, most buyers are doing
research online and are
ready to order, and wait for,
the vehicle they want.
Customers seem to be
content to live with shorter
operating hours because the
dealerships are providing
more pickup and delivery
services, Boquist said.
" We're not going to be
providing some services
[such as shuttle] in the
future, and the customers
don't seem to be missing it, "
he said.
" Whenever we're all
vaccinated and return to
the new normal, will all of
those services be there? "
Boquist expects they will
never return. - ANC

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Automotive News Canada - March 2021-v2

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