Sean Buckley (Executive Chairman, Ultratune) – Business Sight’s Visionary Leaders at Forefront of Entrepreneurship 2020

Augmenting the Reliability of Automobiles with Holistic Auto Servicing

Imagine a world without automobiles – it would be a disaster. From commuting to transporting goods; automobiles are an integral part of today’s life. Consequently, breakdowns cause turmoil. To ensure their smooth running and a hassle-free driving experience, these automobiles must be maintained in optimal condition.

Ultra Tune – an Australian based auto servicing company delivers a compressive list of services for both private and fleet motorists. The company was founded back in 1979 with a pilot store in Box Hill, Victoria. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Ultra Tune now, 41 years later, has more than 270 auto centers spread across the length and breadth of the country. Ultra Tune is renowned as a specialist in the maintenance and servicing of all vehicle models in the Australian market. Through the years, the company has expanded its range of services to include tires and related servicing needs.

Today, Ultra Tune has emerged as an industry leader in this niche market.

Stellar Leadership

The company is paving its way towards ongoing glory under the leadership of Mr. Peter Sean Buckley – Executive Director of Ultra Tune. With vital business attributes such as vision and long-term focus, goal-setting, relationship management, employment expertise, etc., Mr. Buckley leads the company from the front. He emphasizes that the best predictor of the future is the past and constantly learns as he strives to improve the company.

When Ultra Tune was on the brink of collapse, Mr. Buckley stepped in and turned the organisation around. Resulting in the company becoming Australia’s leading, independently owned after-sales automotive service network.

An Enthusiast Personality

Mr. Buckley is tremendously passionate about sports, especially thoroughbred horse racing. He is the proud owner of Ultra Thoroughbreds and runs a stud farm – Barree Stud, in the North East of Victoria. To ensure optimal racetrack success, Mr. Buckley has employed outstanding trainers in Australia and the company has expertise in placing horses in races in top condition.

With over 500 acres of property situated in Victoria, Ultra Thoroughbreds is a state-of-the-art facility and industry leader.

Mr. Buckley ensures the quality of his charges with a Hyperbaric Chamber, an Aqua Therapy center which includes a water treadmill, water walker, and swimming pool, as well as a sand training race-track. With his unwavering commitment towards horse racing, his involvement and winning philosophy has set a benchmark for the team of professional managers and the stock they raise.

The quality and perfection of the stock are vital to the success of the stud and Mr. Buckley understands this fact well, hence he brings fresh ideas to the table. Therefore, renowned trainers such as Danny O’Brien, Lloyd Kennewell and Travis Doudle consider Ultra Thoroughbreds to be a specialist and leader in the industry.

Driving the Success

After graduating from university with a degree in marketing, Mr. Buckley worked in various capacities for organizations such as Thomas Cook around the world, setting up international agencies. Later, he relocated back to Australia and started with Ultra Tune in a marketing role in the early 1990s. From being on the verge of collapse to an industry leading company, he has raised the bar and propelled the company to new heights.

With Ultra Thoroughbreds, he has been magnificent in his systematic business execution resulting in significant prize purses being won in Australia and globally.

Mr. Buckley has had massive success with Ultra Thoroughbreds as the company’s horses have succeeded time and time again with more than 300 wins over the last decade - many at Group One level in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Horses of the caliber of Perfect Promise, Culminate, Miss Andretti (a winner at Royal Ascot and 2007 Australian Horse of the Year), not to mention 2013 Cox Plate winner Shamus Award – currently standing at stud.

On 25th October 2014, Craig Williams led the field on Hooked – a 4-year-old bay stallion from Australia and won the $200,000 Schweppes Crystal Mile. In recent years, Mr. Buckley has bagged other major titles such as Hooked winning the Tramway Stakes in September 2015.

Ultra Thoroughbred’s breeding program has been equally successful producing horses of the stature of Nature Strip, which was born and breed through the Buckley owned program and is now widely regarded as Australia’s best sprinter in 2020.

Holistic Offering

Mr. Buckley claims “Ultra Tune is an IT company that happens to service cars”.

“Our car servicing is our stock in trade, but where Ultra Tune has managed to stay ahead of the competition over the years is by reading market trends and staying ahead of the curve. In the early days we did this by introducing ‘dyno-tuning’ before anyone else, today we aim to stay ahead of the competition by building a state-of-the-art priority IT platform which handles every aspect of the business – from booking a service to reviewing service records, to sending out reminders to clients that their next booking is due, to invoicing,” asserts Mr. Buckley.

Future Landscape

Mr. Buckley envisions the rapid expansion of the business in the coming years. With some key changes to legislation in Australia in 2020, the auto servicing market will sit on a fairer playing field. Hence, he believes there will be more opportunities for Ultra Tune franchises to blossom across the country into the future.


0 Comments

Write a Reply or Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *