Leaders are the architects of human possibility
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.