JAGUAR'S OLDEST DEALER

MARK, PETER, PAUL AND DAVID SHORTER ARE THE PROUD LINK WITH THE WORLD'S OLDEST JAGUAR DEALER. THEIR GRANDFATHER FOUNDED SHORTER MOTORS IN AUCKLAND AND SOLD NEW JAGUARS FROM 1938. THEIR FAMILY STORY IS MONUMENTAL.

- LES. HUGHES

BERT SHORTER WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN OF ACTION whose name lives on strongly through his personal achievements, long Jaguar association, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His commercial link with Jaguar sales is now the oldest continuous official retail association in the world. '

Archibald and Shorter' is the combination of two outstanding Jaguar families who each controlled all of the marque’s sales in the South and North Islands of New Zealand respectively.

The former, founded by their father Alex in 1918, and followed up by sons Ray and Ian Archibald, was exceptionally good at allowing the marque to flourish at the furthermost location of any Jaguar dealer on the globe. Ray was a top Jaguar racer, particularly with his understated Mk2, and he credited much of the Archibald business success to that car and its significant victories.

On the North Island, and in New Zealand’s most populous city Auckland, Albert Victor Ashby Shorter was also a young racer, golfer, tennis player, record-breaking deep-sea fisherman and taxi fleet owner even before 1937 when he was appointed the official distributor for S.S. Cars. His already unlikely success story quickly blossomed into a truly remarkable one.

Bert (‘Ashby’ inside the family) could never have dreamed in his too brief lifetime that his surname would live on and be known internationally in Jaguar circles in the year 2020. Historically, his S.S. appointment was a toe-in-the-water exercise by 36-year-old Coventry manufacturer William Lyons. It was his first effort to diverge from Standard Cars which sold his vehicles outside Britain. Lyons had also recently cut ties with his only business partner, William Walmsley, so the association with Bert Shorter was an early indiction of his ambitions for a prosperous future.