March 29, 2024

Thesavvynurse

Make Business Yours

Phil Dagger, ‘almost much too nice’ salesman who designed automotive empire, dies at 69

Phil Dagger, who reworked a compact made use of vehicle good deal in Colwood into the premier independent automotive and leisure car or truck team in B.C., has died unexpectedly.

Dagger, 69, was discovered lifeless sitting on the sofa at his North Saanich residence on Monday.

He was born on Jan. 8, 1952, in Birkenhead, England and put in the early section of his daily life in the U.K. He immigrated to Canada in the 1970s, following his mother and father and his older sister, Janice, who had arrived earlier.

He was a chef by trade and worked in the kitchens of a quantity of effectively-known lodges for 20 decades. He determined to strike out on his personal and opened a little restaurant in Brentwood Bay. Soon after functioning 16-hour days making an attempt to make his venture successful, he hung up his apron for the last time on Xmas Eve 1986.

With his easygoing nature and his capacity to make close friends with almost everyone he achieved, Dagger made the decision to try offering vehicles.

“I was a mediocre salesman at greatest,” Dagger claimed in 2015. “But that was an enhancement more than the absolute disaster of functioning my have cafe.”

Friends don’t forget his early attempts effectively. “He was pretty much far too good to be in the car small business,” claimed Bruce Walker, who has recognised him for far more than 30 yrs. “He ended just supplying away the profits on every motor vehicle he bought. He was way too form.”

When an prospect to obtain Galaxy Motors, a compact made use of-car dealership, introduced itself in 1990, Dagger snapped it up. In normal auto-enterprise fashion, he bought the small business with no revenue down and payments of $1,666.66 for each thirty day period for two several years.

With a bank loan of $10,000 from his mom to obtain stock, all the important banking companies getting turned him down, he was in company.

The firm has developed in the previous 31 decades to encompass 8 functions spanning Vancouver Island, with 5 automotive and 3 RV dealerships in Langford, Courtney, Parksville and Nanaimo.

In the early times, Dagger washed and offered the vehicles himself, yet again working 16-hour days. Now the enterprise employs about 160 persons.

Even as his empire grew, Dagger in no way missing his own contact.

“He was surely an old-college self-built man,” claimed Todd Mechalchuk, president of operations at Galaxy Motors. “Every morning and lunch, he would make his rounds, expressing hello there to the profits workers, to the people today in provider and converse with prospects.”

His gregarious mother nature did not end there. Each Saturday, he would host a barbecue at the dealership, the place he would make it a level to chit-chat with all people.

“His organization was his existence and his employees ended up his family.”

Dagger, who nevertheless owned ­Galaxy when he died, fashioned prolonged bonds with his many opponents. “He was very well respected in the field,” reported Leonard Carson, normal supervisor at Suburban Motors. “I will miss listening to his viewpoint of the sector.”

Meals shared with household performed a large section in Dagger’s existence. Cooking was his initial passion and he routinely cooked foods for his niece, Amy Jones, and her household.

“He made a killer key rib,” reported Jones. “He savored cooking for pals and family. He was also content to go on the capabilities he learned in instructing them to my 15-12 months-previous daughter.”

Dagger’s other hobbies integrated travelling to off-the-crushed-path places and poker, with repeated visits to Las Vegas, reported Jones.

Dagger never ever married nor experienced kids.“Phil was like a father to me and he regarded me as the daughter that he never experienced,” stated Jones.

Dagger is also survived by a nephew, Mark Jones (Amy’s brother), who works in Japan.

A memorial and celebration of existence is tentatively planned toward the close of September, with a date and area to be ­determined.

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