Hyundai’s luxury offshoot, Genesis, has unveiled details for a breakthrough showroom inside one of Australia’s busiest shopping malls.
Scheduled to open around March 2019, the ‘Genesis Studio’ in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall will lay the platform for the Korean luxury marque’s global expansion, stakeholders say.
The retail facility will reside within premises formerly occupied by Billabong and has been personally endorsed by Genesis boss Manfred Fitzgerald during recent visits to Australia. The Sydney studio will soon be joined by separate sites in Melbourne and Brisbane.
The manufacturer says 46 million people pass through the Pitt Street Mall area by foot annually. From around March, that traffic will have access to the two-level store complete with two Genesis sedan models, the mid-size G70 and the large G80.
“It’s nice to be a pioneer, but in many ways we’re paving the way,” said Genesis Australia general manager Peter Evans.
The Genesis Studio be home to five individual display cars – some elevated to the second storey via a custom hoist -- and will also showcase new retail presentation methods.
The biggest eye-catcher is a spiral staircase wrapped in a transparent LED light screen conveying important information and visual displays.
Despite several pushbacks to Genesis’ Australian launch – first mooted for 2017 – Hyundai’s fledgling luxury arm is clearly serious about its sales potential.
It has committed to a minimum three-year deal at the Pitt Street site, and is spending huge amounts of cash (officially, undisclosed) in the process.
For example, the car-maker is installing three-phase power within the site in order to run its LED light feature. For that to happen, neighbouring occupants including Telstra’s national headquarters have agreed to temporarily shut down to allow for installation.
Genesis’ global boss has been instrumental in the rollout of the Sydney store, Evans said.
“He was out here a couple of weeks ago to look at Melbourne stores,” he explained.
“We had about 20 candidates for a store, which we’d brought down to a couple, and then Manfred came out to share his thoughts.
"It’s his third time to Australia; he came down when we first proposed a store in Melbourne, which he rejected, and he came down in May to approve our Pitt Street store in Sydney, and he came down this latest time to look at our two candidates in Melbourne.
“He’s the torchbearer for the Genesis brand, what we stand for, how we’re going to operate, where we’re going be and who we’re going to be. He’s our operational leader; he flies in, shares his vision, his opinion and his direction, and flies out the next day.”
Seven staff will operate the Genesis Studio in Sydney, following extensive training in etiquette, process and customer service. Evans revealed that only one of the seven has a car dealership background.
“Everyone else comes from backgrounds in food and beverages, hospitality and luxury goods,” he explained.
“The way we envision it is that you walk into the store, someone will ask if you need assistance or if you’d like to browse, or something to eat, and once that person connects with the customer, that’s your personal concierge throughout the whole ownership journey.
“So from meeting and greeting in the store, being shown the car, organising a test drive, organising delivery, arranging service loan cars and servicing – all of that will be facilitated through the first point of contact.”