From turnaround to Dealer of the Year

Mahindra Montana, part of the Penta Motor Group, was recently awarded the brand’s top awards as Dealer of the Year, after being one of the top five dealerships the previous year and, just a year before that, one that was fighting an uphill battle due to numerous industry and other challenges.

The scale of the turnaround is reflected in the dealership’s awards. In the 2024/25 financial year it received Mahindra SA awards for Best Sales Experience, Best Service Experience and Best Dealer Group, as well as finishing runner-up for Total Sales. In 2025/26 it went a step further, winning Dealer of the Year, Best Overall Sales, Best Overall Excellence in the Balanced Scorecard, Best Marketing Gain and Best Fusion Festival Integration.

Dealerfloor spoke to Shammy Naidoo, Dealer Principal at the award-winning Mahindra Montana dealership, about the road to victory which is even more impressive as the dealership relocated to a new premises towards the end of last year.

But while those awards are the visible result, Shammy’s approach to the business is less about trophies and more about people, customers and becoming part of the community.

When he joined Penta in 2023, the dealership was not performing as it should have. Shammy was tasked with turning it around, with sales, facility allocation and staffing among the key challenges.

“You cannot sell two cars on the floor,” he explains, comparing the situation with a supermarket where customers would question why there was only one can of Coke on the shelf. “How can you expect the customer to buy a car from you if he only sees two on your floor? He thinks you are closing down.”

“My background is in industrial psychology and I'm a big believer in growing, nurturing and allowing people to do the work needed. I have always spent time trying to grow people. He says developing people is central to running a successful dealership. “We have a core team in each department, and we realised after some staff appointments that the core must be protected. As such we recruit new people to fit into the core.”

That attitude has its roots in his earlier career in the retail sector and his strong financial background. After starting on the Pick n Pay graduate programme, Shammy worked in retail and sales and marketing before moving to Woolworths, Massmart and later the automotive and financial services sectors.

One of the lessons he took from food retail sector was the importance of being customer centric. He also recalls a lesson from the late Raymond Ackerman about the “moment of truth”, where the first interaction between a customer and a business can determine the rest of that customer's experience. It is an approach that Shammy has subsequently carried into the dealership environment.

One example is the way the sales team was challenged to increase its activity when market conditions became more difficult. Rather than simply telling the salespeople what to do, he asked them to come up with ideas themselves.

Among the actions implemented were advertising vehicles on Facebook Marketplace, updating customer reviews immediately after deliveries and developing a partnership with a nearby Pick n Pay Hyper to generate leads through a QR-code competition.

He tells Dealerfloor that the Pick n Pay initiative was designed to provide the dealership with customer data rather than simply another traditional brand activation. Shammy says the dealership was receiving a steady flow of leads as a result. For him, this is part of going back to the basics while finding different ways of doing them.

Perhaps the clearest example of Shammy's approach is the dealership's community involvement which we asked him about.

He describes the business as “very community driven”, something that the founder’s started from the beginning. He notes that this strategy was planned in detail from the beginning of the financial year, rather than being a collection of ad hoc marketing activities. John-William Vosloo, Penta Mahindra’s Franchise Director, was key to this.

Five schools were selected, with each receiving two vehicles for ue by the school, although the schools remained responsible for insurance. The dealership also provided each with R100 000 in cash, specifically for sport, while branded vehicles, uniforms and other support helped strengthen the relationship and brand activation.

The intention was not simply to put the Mahindra name on a school event. Shammy tells Dealerfloor the dealership became a genuine partner to the schools, gaining access to their events, newsletters and advertising spaces while helping to reduce some of the financial burden associated with school sport. “We became a sincere partner of theirs for the year.”

That relationship has extended beyond conventional sponsorship. “But what we have done is we have connected with our community. We have connected with the grandparents of our community who do not necessarily stay here,” Shammy says.

The dealership has also developed a distinctive approach to larger events. At the Fusion Festival of Mahindra, it invested heavily in its activation and developed its own marketing material rather than simply using standard manufacturer-supplied promotional material.

“We want to be unique. We want to have high activation. We want to be involved. We want to be the flagship. So, we are the flagship,” he states.

The workshop and parts department continue to grow over time with awards well deserved and attributed to the same culture of excellence. These areas remain our anchors for our future success and client retention.

Shammy is quick to point out that the turnaround was not achieved by him alone. He specifically acknowledges John-William Vosloo for helping develop the strategy and positioning of the business, as well as Mahindra SA’s regional and support staff who played an important role during the last 3 years. It would be remiss of him to not mention the sacrifices of his wife Jenny and their children.

Shammy’s career stretches well beyond the automotive retail environment. His CV records senior positions with Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Massmart, Imperial Holdings and Regent Insurance/SA Warranties before he became owner and Dealer Principal of Sapphire Auto in Gezina, where he remained until 2023 before joining the Penta Motor Group. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts in English and Industrial Psychology, an Honours degree in Industrial Relations and a Master of Business Leadership from Unisa. He also completed his RE1, RE5 and FAIS qualifications to gain an insight into the F&I world.

The experience across retail, finance and automotive businesses has given him a clear philosophy: “The basis of my career has been on something called simpler, better and faster,” Shammy concludes.