O'Regan's Collision Centres, Dartmouth, NS

The O'Regan family involvement in the automobile business dates back to 1915 when S.E.O’Regan started in the business. S.E. went on to operate dealerships for Ford, then Chrysler, and in later years Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. Sons Stephen and Paul O'Regan worked at the family dealerships while growing up in Parrsboro in the 1940's and 50's. However, in 1956 the newly constructed Trans Canada Highway bypassed Parrsboro causing the O'Regan brothers to pursue their futures elsewhere. Stephen went on to pursue a degree in engineering and Paul a degree in education. In 1974, Paul took a leave of absence from teaching and rented a gas station at corner of Thistle and Maple Street in Dartmouth and started selling and leasing used cars. It was a lean time, with only two employees, former students of Paul's from Dartmouth High, and a pay phone their only telephone. However, times were not lean for long, by 1981, Paul's corner lot was selling over 700 cars a year and it was time Stephen left his engineering position and joined his brother in the growing business. In 1985, Paul and Stephen bought Scotia Chev Olds, now O'Regan's Chev Olds Cadillac on Robie Street in Halifax, transforming their successful team of twelve to an overwhelming team of 108. Managing a team this size would be crucial to their success and so O'Regan's became one of the first dealerships in Atlantic Canada to run their own human resources department. Their next venture came about in 1987 with the opportunity to purchase a Toyota franchise, now O'Regan's Toyota Dartmouth. They secured the Lexus franchise in 1990, along with a second Toyota franchise in Bridgewater, N.S., now O'Regan's South Shore Toyota. Toyota East was added in 1994, O'Regan's Subaru in Bridgewater in 1995 and O'Regan's Hyundai in Bridgewater in 1996. O'Regan's debuted Kia for the HRM in 1999 with O'Regan's Kia on Wyse Road in Dartmouth. Kia started with only two models and has now expanded their offering to include everything from ...