March 2006 2006, the day that Mark Wegh’s dream came true with the grand opening of the Porsche Center Gelderland. Back then, nobody, including Mark Wegh himself, could have expected where this would lead to. Now in 2021, Porsche Center Gelderland celebrates its 15th anniversary. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, Mark Wegh could not invite customers, friends, and business relations to Heteren for a big anniversary party. But we live in modern times, and a live-stream was the perfect means to celebrate 15 years of Porsche Center Gelderland.
2006 was the year that the first unmanned petrol station came into service in the Netherlands. In 2006, the Italian soccer team won the World Championship. But above all, in 2006, the Porsche Centrum Gelderland opened its doors. A small team of 8 people, including owner Mark Wegh, did the job. Just 2 years later, in 2008, Mark Wegh was the dutch ‘Entrepreneur of the year’. As Mark explains that was the icing on the cake for years of hard work.
Customer-centricity at Porsche Center Gelderland.
Mark Wegh’s explains the success of Porsche Center Gelderland as follows. “Make sure the customer has no argument to go somewhere else. The most important is a satisfied customer. And no matter whether one visits the showroom to take pictures for your Instagram account, or to buy a brand new Porsche, both are treated the same. Sounds easy, but you have to do it.” This customer-centricity shows in many ways at Porsche Center Gelderland. Not only hospitality is important, but they also have a 24/7 availability, and 2 workshops with over 80 workstations.
No matter where you are, they make sure your car will be transported to the workshops with in-house transport solutions. And hard to imagine but Porsche Center Gelderland delivers your new Porsche within a few days. Combine all this, and you won’t be surprised this is not just a dutch story. In the 15 years of Porsche Center Gelderland, they reached clients all over the world. From Hongkong to New-York, From Amsterdam to Sydney. The testimonials of several satisfied customers, many of them dutch celebrities, underline the succes of this vision.
Continuous expansion
In the 15 years of Porsche Center Gelderland, one could say that expansion has always been the main theme. The company has grown from 8 employees to 145 in just 15 years. In 2015, after being a Porsche Classic Partner for several years, Mark Wegh opened the Porsche Classic Center Gelderland, the 1st Porsche Classic Center worldwide. Barbara Fenkel, Porsche’s vice president region Europe tells us Porsche Center Gelderland sold no less than 579 new Porsches in 2020. Thomas May, Porsche director Area Northern Europe adds to that: in the 15 years of operation, Porsche Center Gelderland sold approximately 5200 new Porsches. There are truly phenomenal and impressive numbers.
Limited Editions
In 2011, Porsche Center Gelderland presented a limited-edition Porsche 911. Only 5 cars were made, and all of them came with an extremely exclusive IWC Watch. And nothing else was the truth for the 15th anniversary of Porsche Center Gelderland. With the help of illusionist Victor Mids, a limited-edition Porsche 911 was presented. The car comes in light-blue with orange lettering, and that reminds us of the Gulf livery Porsches , of whom many now reside in the ROFGO Collection. Only 6 cars will be produced, 2 Coupes, 2 Targas, and 2 Cabriolets, and they will be exclusively available from the Porsche Center Gelderland.
Barn find
Most of us know that Mark Wegh has an amazing private collection of Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. And the 15th anniversary of Porsche Center Gelderland was the best opportunity to treat himself. After driving the Mille Miglia in a Porsche 550 Spyder, on loan from Albert Westerman (State-of-Art Collection), Mark dreamt of owning one of these. We all know Porsche 550 Spyders do not come that often to the market. And to Mark’s surprise, he got a phone call a few weeks ago. A car was found in a barn in southern California, hidden since 1963.
Due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, Mark had to trust some folks in California to go take a look instead of flying in himself. And now, an unmolested, never restored, matching number Porsche 550-0069 is part of the amazing collection of Mark Wegh.
Congratulations to Mark Wegh and the complete team of Porsche Center Gelderland. This journey was only possible with hard work, lots of passion, and Love for Porsche !!
Picture gallery of 15 years Porsche Center Gelderland
All pictures are screenshots from the live-stream, you can still enjoy that at the website of Porsche Center Gelderland.
