Happy retirement . .. Millennium Motors Owner Evan Fricker (left) farewells Trevor Cross after about 20 years of working together in the motoring industry.
After 53 years in the motor industry, Trevor Cross has retired.
Mr Cross said he started the Trevor Cross Autos in 1989 and sold the business to Ken Small and Evan Fricker in late 1999.
‘‘The business was then renamed Millennium Motors.’’
After he sold the business he had plans to stay until he sold his last stock of vehicles, he said.
‘‘It was only supposed to be three months but here we are all of these years later.’’
Mr Cross was born in Balclutha and grew up on a farm.
It was his father who influenced him to get into the motoring field.
‘‘My father said to me go and get a trade and then you can come back and fix the tractors and machinery on the farm—but I never went back to fix them.’’
At the time it was normal for people to walk into a business and ask for a job, he said.
‘‘So I walked into the Ford dealership in Balclutha on a Friday and started the job on a Monday.’’
Through the dealership he received a mechanic’s apprenticeship.
‘‘I started in the motoring business in 1968 as a mechanic and I’ve been selling cars since 1974.’’
The aspects of the job he would miss the most were his clients, friends, and workmates.
‘‘The biggest thing is my colleagues. They have become my family and it is a great workplace. We have the young ones coming through and I know this job is a young person’s game.’’
He was sad to retire but had other interests, he said.
‘‘I’ll go on to do other things like I am a part-time horse trainer, so I will do that until I can’t anymore.’’
His retirement plans included shifting to Canterbury where he could be closer to family, he said.
‘‘We’ve purchased a property near Dunsandel with a 10-acre block for the horses and because it is a short drive to the airport and one of our daughters is in Australia it would make it easier to catch a flight to see her.’’
- Valu Maka
