Taking over the family auto business, pumping gas in a dress and high heels

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It can be a unique path for women in Canada’s enterprising families. We profile some of their stories in our Women and Canadian Business Families series.

Otto Koller was the first man to bring BMW to Canada in 1969. His dealership in Ottawa was thriving, thanks to his entrepreneurial spirit and the support of his equally business-minded wife, Huguette.

But when Otto died in 1998, Huguette and her daughter Sonia persevered and, together other family members, dedicated themselves to the family business and brought it successfully through some dark times.

Here, Huguette and Sonia collaborate on sharing their remarkable story.

Tell us about Otto’s family.

“Otto’s father had a hotel, a clothing store, a shoe store and a farm in the Canton of Luzern, Switzerland.

Otto, the fourth of five sons, also had a dream of being an entrepreneur. He loved automobiles and did his apprenticeship as an automotive technician in Switzerland. But land that would support a dealership in Switzerland was difficult to come by.

In 1959 at the age of 22, knowing very little English and with 500 Swiss Francs (about $1000 today) lent to him by his aunt, he took the long journey by ship to Canada and settled in Ottawa.

Upon meeting [Huguette], they decided they wanted to start a family but Otto would need to start his own business to financially compensate.

Within five years, he had the White Rose gas station in Ottawa with a small shop.

Tell us about Huguette’s family.

“Huguette’s father was also in the hotel business. He built the first hotel in Val D’Or, the Palace Hotel in Val d’Or, for the miners that came from Europe that worked in the gold mines.

Huguette’s mother was the chef, and her father managed the hotel.

When Huguette was 6 years old, the family had to sell the hotel and moved to Gatineau to the farmhouse that Huguette’s grandfather had left her father.

The farmhouse had no light and no electricity, and the family started over.

Huguette developed a love of cars with her dad. He taught her how to drive when she was 14. Otto had never met a woman that liked cars as much as she did. At the time they met, she was working in a pharmacy earning 25 dollars per week.

How did Huguette and Otto end up with a BMW dealership?

On buying the White Rose gas station, Huguette says that, at that time, the banks did not feel comfortable lending money to immigrants. Otto had been told that they might be more flexible on a Friday evening just before close. They presented themselves to the bank at 4:45 on a Friday, and the bank agreed to lend them the money with the condition that Otto or Huguette would have to come in weekly to make payments.

Huguette would give up her lunch hour at the pharmacy to go pump gas. She was the first woman in Ottawa to serve gas and she did it wearing a dress and high heels. Otto would be at the gas station from six o’clock in the morning until eight o’clock at night.”

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Otto noticed Mercedes had a good presence in Ottawa but there were no BMWs, so he called BMW in Germany every Friday to suggest bringing BMW to Canada and their response was always that [this] was not in their plans. [After six months] they said yes, and they arranged for an importer to send Otto his first shipment: 10 BMWs.

But the bank pulled out the day the shipment was to be delivered, leaving Otto with no money to pay for the shipment.

Thankfully, a doctor that was a client lent him the $50,000 so the cars could be released, and he paid that back within the week.

BMW told Otto that he would not be able to sell cars from a gas station and would need to build a two-car dealership and a service and parts department. By spring of 1969, they were in their new facility on Richmond Road in Westboro. By then they had two young daughters at home and Huguette was dedicated to caring for her two daughters.

The business grew as they purchased one house after another and brought in different dealerships under their roof: BMW, Saab, Datsun, Lada, Subaru, Hyundai, and Land Rover.”

When did Huguette’s role become more prominent in the business?

“In 1978, with her daughters being old enough, Huguette decided that she wanted to go back to work. She told Otto that she would either work for him or work for someone else. She did a three-year apprenticeship at Otto’s and learned all the facets of the sales, service and parts departments.

In 1981, Otto told her of the opportunity to have a Lada dealership in Gatineau and asked her if she would like to run it. She jumped at the chance of running her own store. She had three salespeople and 5 technicians. That year she bought a framed picture of a Ferrari Testarossa, her dream car, and she was working towards getting it.

She ran the Lada store successfully until 1983.

At that time, a representative from Chrysler Canada offered her a Chrysler dealership.”

What was this experience like for Huguette, as a female business leader in the 1970s and 1980s?

“She was the first Chrysler dealer in Canada that was led by a woman.

In November, 1988, she moved to a new and much bigger location but by 1989, a recession started. Despite the times, she was determined to make sure that she had the knowledge she needed to ensure her business would be a success. So Huguette attended the [three-year] Harvard OPM [Owner/President Management] program.

Even in the recession, she tripled her business in every department that year, which she credits to what she had learned at Harvard. It was in 1989 that she found herself driving around the streets of Ottawa in her Ferrari Testarossa.”

How did you shift your life and your business roles when Otto died?

“At the end of 1996, we discovered that Otto had Stage 4 brain cancer. He passed on Feb. 23, 1998.

When Otto died, it was a very difficult time. We had two dealerships under one roof in Quebec and four dealerships under one roof in Ontario. Dealerships were moving towards stand-alone buildings and within a month and a half of his passing, five of the six manufacturers discussed with us the need for stand-alone buildings.

We had lost almost half our staff because people were saying we wouldn’t be around.

Nobody would apply for our posted positions – that lasted three years. Banks were getting nervous, and we were being told that the banks had lent to my father and not to us and that we had to find other financing.

Sometimes, you have to take a step back to move forward. We had two buildings with six dealerships, so we decided to keep two dealerships and sell the others. We decided to sell the operations in Gatineau. In 1998 we sold Honda and in 1999 we sold Chrysler and decided to focus on our operations in Ottawa.

From there, we had to decide which of the dealerships we would keep in Ottawa.”

How did you make the choices regarding keeping certain cars in the business?

“My father had helped bring BMW into Canada. Our BMW store was very established, profitable and there was a long history there that we wanted to preserve.

The other decision to keep Subaru was made because the cars were manufactured well, and the company was up-and-coming. Instead of demanding a stand-alone building at the time, they offered help and support.

The representative from Subaru Canada showed up to our office with flowers, as he wanted to pay his respects to Otto.

He then asked, ‘What can I do to help you?’

[We] learned first-hand from him that a supportive approach to business a more sustainable formula for ongoing success.

His name is Tod Sullivan, and he is now the vice-president of sales at Subaru Canada and we have been the No. 1 volume store in Canada for nine years running now.

In what ways were you, as women, considered a “risk” in the 1990s?

“A mother-daughter-daughter team ([Sonia’s] younger sister, Tanya, had a young baby but also jumped in to help out) was by no means the norm at the time. Not many people believed in us.

“It took three years to convince our market that we were here to stay, and when we opened a new building for BMW, and Subaru took over the whole space that used to be shared by four franchises, we finally turned the corner.

We are now the oldest BMW dealership in Canada and the biggest in our market.

[Huguette] at the age of 81 is still keeping up with our businesses.

How have other people in your life provided support to you as a businesswoman?

“Arief Raun [Sonia’s husband] lived in Los Angeles when [they] were first married and he worked with [us] and supported his family business for five years [before] he settled here and focused on helping us.

[Sonia’s] daughter, Suria, loves cars and enjoys spending time at the dealership and is looking forward to making her contribution to our family business.

Sonia’s niece, Natasha, also spent time before university supporting the business.”

What have you been most proud of throughout your careers?

“We are proud to have been able to surround ourselves with wonderful, intelligent, passionate, dedicated and loyal people to help us do what we do: take good care of our clients, take good care of each other and give back to our community.

Many of the people that we work with have started with us when they were young single people and have gone on to have families and very successful careers with us.

We persevered during our darkest hour with minimal staff and a dark cloud hovering over us [but] we stayed true to our course, and we have shared our success with the people that helped us achieve it. We believed in ourselves when most did not believe in us.

[Huguette] was the president of the soup kitchen in Gatineau for 25 years. We also helped struggling families with young children to provide them formula and diapers, as well as their daily necessities. We served on average 275 lunches a day to people in need and distributed breakfast to 15 local schools every day all of which we paid in full by fundraising events.

But most importantly, our proudest accomplishment is our family; the fact that we have been able to bring up a happy and healthy family while growing our Otto’s Family and preserving and growing the very business that allowed our family to experience life and all it’s great adventures.”

Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

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