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Leaders are the architects of human possibility

Managing Director of the Pupkewitz Motor Division, Junior Bruwer (right) earlier this week welcomed former McCarthy CEO, Brand Pretorius to a packed hall at the Windhoek Country Club.

Managing Director of the Pupkewitz Motor Division, Junior Bruwer (right) earlier this week welcomed former McCarthy CEO, Brand Pretorius to a packed hall at the Windhoek Country Club.

Iconic South African automotive CEO and visionary dealer, Brand Pretorius visited Namibia this week as the guest of Pupkewitz Motors. On Tuesday morning he addressed an invited audience, telling remarkable anecdotal tales of his almost 40-year career in the motor industry.
Brand Pretorius started his career in 1973 at Toyota South Africa when the marque was still seen as a cheap car. At Toyota he worked in management positions in research, planning, sales and marketing.
Introducing Pretorius to the local automotive audience, Pupkewitz Motors MD, Junior Bruwer said Pretorius guided Toyota to become South Africa’s market leader in both sales and customer satisfaction. During his Toyota years, Pretorius worked closely with the Pupkewitz dealership, eventually becoming a friend of the group’s late chairman, Mr Harold Pupkewitz.
In 1995, Pretorius left Toyota to take up the position of chief executive at McCarthy Motor Holdings. In 1999 he became CEO of the holding company, McCarthy Limited. This also marked the beginning of the group’s major financial crisis. “We owed eight banks one and a half billion rand” said Pretorius. Under his leadership, McCarthy was successfully recapitalised, restructured and restored to financial health.

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