Welcome to Northgate GM!

For over 40 years, the Bannister Family and its partners have been bringing quality automotive products and services to communities across Western Canada. Starting with our first store in 1979, our company has lived by the motto "A Family Business with Family Values", and we extend this to our employees, with competitive wages, excellent benefits, and an outstanding company culture. Founded by Lyn and Joanne Bannister in Barrhead, Alberta, this family business is led by their children Chad (Nadine), Mark (Laurie) and Mary Jo Payeur, and their Dealer partners.

There will be no impact to the current daily operation at Northgate. It will be business as usual as we work together to continue to grow our business. The current store management structure will remain in place.

First, and most importantly, we see the fantastic culture of the Northgate team as an ideal fit for the Bannister group. Our expectation is that our organizations will find a lot of shared values and priorities. From the business side, we see this not only as an opportunity to bring a high-performing store into our group, we also see Edmonton as an area of high growth and an opportunity to establish a presence in another area of Western Canada.

The Bannister Automotive Group has a corporate office in Kelowna, BC, that houses additional support resources for the entire group.

As our company has grown, we have always taken the strategy of “buy, invest, and grow” through our mergers and acquisitions.  We look for partners with similar values, and portfolios that are complementary, and we invest in businesses that can support our current and future growth expectations.

Northgate GM will retain the name and branding for the immediate future.

Your business cards can stay the same! Nothing will change in the short term.

Continuous improvement is a big part of the Bannister culture. One of the huge benefits of having a group of stores is the ability to experiment, share information, and apply best practices on a group-wide scale. Our partners and managers work together to improve quality, safety, customer service, efficiency and cost in areas where it makes sense. We expect to work the same way with the Northgate GM and we expect to learn a lot from you!

Bannister has a number of subject matter experts at the corporate office in areas such as Accounting, Finance, Operations Management, Marketing, and Human Resources. This staff provides resources, knowledge and expertise to all of our stores, and we are excited to offer this same support to Northgate GM.

Absolutely. We know there’s a lot we can learn from Northgate GM, and we’re looking to learn, to share and discuss best practices that we can apply to all our dealerships.

Our motto for this transition is “business as usual”, and we do not intend to lay off staff as a result of this acquisition. Our ultimate goal is to grow our business in Edmonton, and our employees are an important part of that. We are going to take our time to fully understand the Northgate business, get to know our new employees, and look at how we can better integrate shared resources into the Bannister group.

As part of the transition, employees will transition over to the Bannister Automotive Group benefit plan within 60 days. We are currently reviewing our Group plan structure and will provided details on your new plan coverage in the coming weeks. We do not expect any drastic change from the coverage but do expect some changes.

Yes, employees will continue to receive their current incentives open to Northgate employees. Bannister Automotive Group also offers significant incentives to their employees, and over time these will be aligned between organizations.

The Northgate team will transition over to the Bannister Automotive Group centralized payroll system – ADP Work Force Now.

The Bannister Dealer Support Team will be sending out a communication with the changes and timelines. This transition will occur this Fall.