Mark Blakely serving longer than any other Toyota finance manager

Bunbury Toyota’s Mark Blakely claims working with a good team and for good people has been key to his longevity in the industry.

Mr Blakely was recently recognised for 25 years working in the finance department and was also told he was the company’s longest serving finance manager in Australia.

“I thought there would have been some other person that would have been there longer,” he said.

It was April, 1994, when Mr Blakely started in his role at the company.

“I had no idea I’d stay here for so long — I’d finished doing what I was doing in Perth then an opportunity came up to come down here and one thing led to another,” he said.

“I’ve been here ever since.”

Peter Krikke offered him his job at the company. He said he had also enjoyed working with Shane and Ryan.

“I’ve told numerous people over time that the Krikke family is one of the biggest reasons I’ve stayed here for so long,” he said.

“They’ve been very supportive of me, have created a great working environment and that shows with the really stable staff within the team.

“That’s a little unusual for the motor vehicle industry because there is often a high turnover of staff — I think our shortest serving person in sales would have been here six or seven years.”

Mr Blakely had worked in finance prior to landing his job at Bunbury Toyota.

He said a lot of thing had changed in the industry in the 25 years since he started in his role.

“Things have changed massively — that’s just technology in general though,” he said.

“When I first started here I was hand writing documents whereas now everything is electronic —that’s all for the better because things run much more smoothly.

“The last six months there has also been some other really massive and challenging changes because of the banking royal commission but we’ve got to the end of it now.”

He said he could not see himself working anywhere else before he retired despite there being a strong pull to move back to Perth since his sons moved away.