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Motor Distributors Limited: Rebuilding Engagement Through Purpose, Trust, and Growth
Find out how Motor Distributors Limited empowers its teams, builds a culture of trust and purpose, and drives sustainable performance
In June 1950, amidst the aftermath of World War II, Stephen O’Flaherty signed a deal that secured the rights to the Volkswagen franchise in Ireland and some three years later he secured the Volkswagen franchise for the UK which he subsequently sold to the Thomas Tilling Group in 1957. Perhaps Ireland’s place in Volkswagen history was most firmly established in 1950 when the first Volkswagen ever built outside Germany was assembled on Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. The car itself is now proudly displayed at the Volkswagen Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Throughout the fifties demand rose steadily and the business quickly outgrew the Shelbourne Road facility. In 1955 assembly was transferred to a new factory on the Naas Road, Dublin 12. Vehicle assembly continued on the Naas Road until the mid-1980s when the company became the last in Ireland to withdraw from production. In 1954 MDL secured and continues to hold the Mercedes-Benz distribution rights for Ireland, and as part of our EV strategy, we began expanding our brands portfolio. 2023 saw the addition of the excellent BYD range of electric and hybrid cars and in 2024, we secured the distribution rights for the newly-designed smart brand and in January 2025 the XPENG brand joined our portfolio of electric and hybrid cars.
Today, Motor Distributors employs 140 staff at our Naas Road headquarters.
- Culture
- Employee Wellbeing
- Employee experience
Founded by the late Stephen O’Flaherty who is widely celebrated as one of the great pioneers of modern Irish motoring, the O’Flaherty family has a long history in the Irish motor industry and has been involved in manufacturing, distribution and retail operations since 1950
How do you actively engage your employees?
The goal of achieving the Best Places to Work certification was set a number of years ago as part of a wider strategic program of work aimed at re-establishing Motor Distributors Limited as a multi brand distributor in the Irish motor industry. It was on that journey that we learned that an engaged employee isn’t just someone who is happy at work, they need to have a deeper sense of purpose and they need to understand why their individual contribution matters and why they come to work every day. Staff need to be connected to the brands that they represent.
We developed an understanding of how our leaders interacted with and were seen within the business and from that information, we set about making the shift from a management mindset to a mentorship mindset. We asked our Leaders to provide the what and the why, and then give our employees the autonomy to decide how best to do their jobs.
We set about immediately improving how we communicate with the business, we naturally invested in technology to help support that aim but we found that open, transparent and fearless communication was really what our staff wanted and we now host regular "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) sessions and town hall forums with all of the senior leadership team to ensure that information flows freely and that every employee knows and understands the business.
Finally, we seen that real and lasting engagement is fuelled by progress and achievement whether that’s personal or professional. We significantly expanded our internal learning and development offering and we engaged with every employee about their development needs. We now offer and support personal & professional development paths, ensuring every team member sees a future for themselves with MDL.
At the end of 2025, we had seen a significant increase in the number of employees being successful in promotion opportunities, we have seen a 64% reduction in voluntary turnover and employee referrals are now a consistent source of candidates seeking to work with us.
When your staff are telling their friends and family that this is a good place to work, then you know you are on the right path.
Pressing HR Challenges in Today’s Industry
There are obviously a lot of challenges in the modern HR space but for me the two most pressing challenges are;
Finding and retaining talent: As our business and indeed the wider industry evolves, the need for specialised and industry specific skills is higher than ever. Because the talent pipeline is shrinking, we are exploring how we shift our traditional focus of hiring for skills to hiring for cultural fit and attitude, we can then rely on our internal training structure and succession planning programs to bridge that gap.
Holistic Wellbeing: Moving to address the mental and emotional health of your workforce should be a major priority in an increasingly stressful landscape. At a recent wellbeing talk, we got some feedback from staff saying that while gym sessions, runs and yoga are great, not everyone is comfortable or capable of doing them and some people have challenges that go beyond physical fitness. The message was clear - employee’s expectations of the workplace are changing. The area of mental health is a real and growing challenge that we are seeing and the positive in that message is that we have created an environment where staff feel safer speaking out and saying “I’m not ok”
I would be comfortable saying that along our journey of change, we have learned that the best ideas don’t happen in a vacuum, they can’t be reserved by or be the responsibility of the leadership team—they happen in that space between departments and it can be challenging to break down those silos and encourage those conversations to take place. It’s really important to celebrate your wins and successes and to recognise the individual and team contributions as often as possible. we make sure that the small, everyday acts of teamwork are visible to everyone. This creates a culture where helping a teammate is just as valued as hitting a personal KPI.
HR Director
Our BPTW journey and Advice for Organizations Considering Certification
Do it and don’t be fearful of the feedback. I have always operated on the belief that if you care, then you will be curious. If you ask people for their views and opinions then it’s important that you do something with that information. If you invest your time creating the environment where staff feel safe to tell you what its like for them then that is invaluable information to have. My reflections on the Best Places to Work journey would be:
- Listen Before You Act: Don't wait for the certification survey to ask your employees how they feel. Start the conversation now so that the certification when it hopefully comes, becomes a celebration of your progress, not a discovery of your problems.
- Be Vulnerable: If the survey results show areas of improvement, share them with the staff. Showing that you are aware of and willing to work on the low scores builds more trust.
- Focus on your staff, not on the award: Certification is the output of a strong culture, not the cause of it. If you focus on making your employees, feel valued, safe, and challenged then the rewards and awards will follow.
