Growth is often a sign of success, but it can also expose the limitations of facilities that were never designed to support where a business is heading. That's a challenge Ebbett’s Tauriko encountered. The solution began with one business decision.
Ebbett dealerships operated from three sites. One of them needed upgrading to meet Jaguar Land Rover’s new corporate identity requirements. Rather than update the facility in isolation, Ebbett saw an opportunity to bring the operations together in a purpose-designed location.
Insights by Brian Rastrick
Reading time 2 min
Key Take Aways for Busy Leaders:
- Think beyond individual projects. A corporate identity upgrade became an opportunity to transform the wider business. By looking beyond a facility upgrade, your can identify an opportunity to consolidate various sites into one purpose-built facility that better supports operations, customers and future growth.
- Plan operations first. Early operational planning creates long-term value. Location studies help determine how spaces should work together before individual buildings are designed. Resolving these relationships early creates a more efficient and integrated facility.
- Consolidate for growth. Bringing multiple operations together requires balancing customer experience, brand identity, vehicle movements and workshop efficiency. The result demonstrates how thoughtful planning can improve operational performance while creating capacity for future expansion.
Growth is often a sign of success, but it can also expose the limitations of facilities that were never designed to support where a business is heading. As operations expand, businesses can find themselves spread across multiple sites, managing duplicated resources, fragmented workflows, and increasing operational complexity. What once worked well can gradually become a barrier to efficiency, collaboration, and future growth.
For many industrial businesses, consolidation presents an opportunity to step back and rethink how their operations are organised. Bringing people, processes and facilities together into a purpose-built environment can improve productivity, streamline operations and create the capacity needed for the next stage of growth. When approached strategically, consolidation becomes more than a property decision; it becomes a powerful business tool for improving performance and supporting long-term success.
Planning the whole operation
Chow:Hill began with bulk and location studies to test where the showrooms, vehicle yards, workshop and back-of-house spaces should sit. This established the overall site arrangement before the individual buildings and customer spaces were refined.
The key challenge was balancing the needs of each range with the way the facility would work as a whole. Customers needed clear routes to sales and service areas. Vehicles needed practical paths through the site and into the workshop. The showrooms needed distinct identities without making the development feel fragmented.
Considering those relationships early helped shape a coherent concept for the site, rather than treating each dealership as a separate building problem.
One site, multiple needs
Now under construction, the facility is designed to accommodate Discovery, Range Rover, Volvo, Polestar, Hyundai, BYD and Isuzu, as well as additional brands yet to be announced. It will provide approximately 4,480sqm of floor area and 30 workshop and grooming bays.
When complete, Ebbett Tauriko will bring operations from three sites into one facility designed for both customers and the teams who work there. The project demonstrates the value of resolving operational needs at the outset: the position of a showroom matters, but so do the journeys between the yard, service reception, workshop and customer spaces.
“Consolidation is often more than a property decision. It's a business decision.” —Brian Rastrick, Senior Principal Chow:Hill
--
About Brian Rastrick
Senior Principal and Registered Architect Brian Rastrick is known for his innovative, considered approach to design. He delivers creative, functional, and environmentally sustainable solutions. Designing across a broad range of disciplines, from education to commercial to modern interior fit-outs of offices, Brian’s understanding of the use of space enables clients to achieve architecturally-influenced environments that reflect and meet their organisational and residential needs.
September 30, 2026
Brian Rastrick
September 30, 2026
