Honda’s Lindsay Smalley retires

FORMER Honda Australia senior director and life member of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), Lindsay Smalley, has retired.

Mr Smalley, who worked for Honda for 23 years, quietly pulled up stumps at the Tullamarine-based car importer in the week before Christmas.

He had stepped down from Honda Australia board in October 2011, becoming an adviser to the board and company spokesman as he began his transition to retirement.

He was replaced as a director by general manager sales and marketing Stephen Collins, who thus became the most senior Australian appointee at the company under Japanese managing director Satoshi Matsuzawa.

Mr Smalley came to Honda as an IT professional in 1989, holding a range of senior managerial positions across the company before replacing Neal Robertson as senior director in 2003.

Honda experienced a sales rollercoaster during Mr Smalley’s tenure as senior director, first doubling volume in just four years, from 30,813 in 2003 to 60,529 in 2007, before heading south again in the global financial crisis as Honda struggled both globally and locally.

In 2011, Mr Smalley was forced to guide the local company through supply shortages caused by natural disasters in Japan and Thailand that affected Honda more than any other car company, wiping out about 80 per cent of deliveries at times.

Honda sales fell 25 per cent to just 30,107 vehicles in 2011 – half of its tally four years earlier – but with the resumption of Thai production and arrival of much-needed new models such as the Civic and CR-V in 2012, Honda sales have recovered by more than 14 per cent.

Mr Smalley was a long-time importer representative on the board of the Australian motor industry’s peak body, the FCAI, becoming vice-president and earning a life membership in 2011.

He told GoAuto that his first objective in retirement would be to oversee a renovation and extension of his house at Mount Martha, along with a European holiday.