Meet Francis Hewitt.
It feels like eyeballing the human embodiment of one of the machines he painstakingly restores, alongside his colleagues Mike Blake and Turoa Royal. He exudes the same robust confidence. It taps into a similar history of resilience and practicality that stretches back generations.
Francis Hewitt
Owner of Franklin Motor Company
Francis’ great, great grandparents came to this area and farmed chickens. His great grandfather was Frank Hewitt, district coroner and the editor of the Franklin Times. To this day horse jumpers at nearby Pukekohe vie for a cup in his name.
As a youth he fell in love with a vehicle in the same vein. Something that worked well on the frontiers, that could turn its hand to anything. The Land Rover. They originally came from post war Britain, an extrapolation of the US made Jeep that had served the Allies so well. Soon, they were all over the fading British Empire and beyond. Trundling relentlessly across safaris, warzones and farmland, including here in New Zealand.
Francis’ story with them began in his teens, but took off in 2021. Trained as an electrician, welder and fitter, he’d restored a ‘landy’ and set it out for sale in front of his home. It caught the eye of a top executive at a prestigious car dealer, who started recommending them. Suddenly turned pro, Francis has been grappling with a burgeoning waiting list ever since.
The result? Gentile old timers restored to purring former glory. Sleek turbo-charged brutes that can roar head to head with the latest 4×4 contenders. Cruisers that wouldn’t be out of place on Hollywood Boulevard with a movie star driver.
We’re getting a profile and building a name for ourselves,” he says. “We’ve got cars all over the world. I believe we can do a better job here, NZ- dollar-wise than the rest of the world. We’ve got a stock of vehicles, parts, and good understanding of the trucks. We can deliver a better product than what else is around.”
The team is all local, based in a friend’s Dad’s barn, and it’s two minutes from home to the spanners.
“There’s enough industry here in Franklin to support what we do,” says Francis. “That definitely adds to it. All the stuff we need is within shouting distance.”
And, despite all the blood, sweat and gears, the magic abides.
“These cars have an intrinsic value,” says Francis. “They have an idiosyncratic personality. They leave their mark on you. If you have something to do with a Land Rover, be it as a five-year-old, a twenty- five-year old, your Uncle had one, your grandfather, there was one at the beach you used to tow the boat or on the horse farm throwing hay out the back. Everyone will come back to that thing. You see people come here who haven’t seen a Land Rover for 30 years. They stick their head in one, and you see them smell. Their mind takes them straight back to that moment. That is our why, and it’s perhaps more present somewhere like here, on the rural fringes of Auckland, than elsewhere.”
www.franklinmotorcompany.co.nz
@franklinmotorcompany
