Supercheap Auto

Supercheap Auto, Lawnton

In 1972, Reg and Hazel Rowe founded an automotive accessories mail order business. By 1974, the business had a turnover of $1 million and opened its first retail location in Brisbane.

In 1993, the business was operating seven stores and Bob Thorn joined the company as Director of Retail Operations. Within 12 months the number of stores operating increased to 14 and Thorn was appointed General Manager. In 1997, Thorn was appointed Managing Director and served in this role until January 2006. During his tenure the business quickly grew to over 200 stores.

Supercheap Auto acquired the Perth based Marlows business in May 2003. Marlows was the largest independent retailer of auto parts and accessories in Western Australia and South Australia at that time, operating 20 stores in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria under the Marlows and Rocca Bros brand names. These stores were rapidly rebranded as Supercheap Auto stores following completion of the acquisition and fully integrated into Supercheap Auto's operations.

In November 2003, Supercheap Auto opened its first seven stores in New Zealand. All seven stores were opened on the same day and over 13,000 customers visited the stores during the first two days of trading. Supercheap Auto currently has 41 stores trading in New Zealand.

In July 2004, the company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, the initial public offering was well received in the market and in fact, was oversubscribed resulting in a scale back of the general public offering.

The company has 300 stores throughout Australia and also in New Zealand, the 250th being Timaru in New Zealand and the 300th being Holden Hill in South Australia.

From the commencement of its automotive accessories retail business in 1972, Supercheap Auto has grown to over 320 non-franchised stores across every state and territory in Australia and in both islands of New Zealand. The phenomenal growth over the years of Supercheap Auto has seen the recent development of new store formats including 1,000sqm Superstores at Oxenford, Alice Springs, Cannon Hill and Caboolture and smaller 400sqm stores to complement the traditional 700 sq m formats.

Supercheap Auto-sponsored Holden Commodore VF of Russell Ingall in 2013

From 2005 to 2020, Supercheap Auto held sponsorship naming rights for the Bathurst 1000. It has also sponsored several Supercars Championship teams since 1997 under the brand Supercheap Auto Racing, with drivers such as Steven Ellery (2000–2004), Greg Murphy (2005–2006), Russell Ingall (2008–2013), Tim Slade (2014–2015), Chaz Mostert (2016–2019) and Jack Le Brocq (2020).

It was naming rights sponsor of the Bathurst 1000 from 2005 until 2020, and became the naming rights sponsor of the TCR Australia Touring Car Series in 2021.[3][4]