For Jason Ediger, becoming dealer partner/general manager at Humboldt’s South 20 Dodge Chrysler was a chance to get closer to home.
Jason, who’s originally from Nokomis, started his new position on Aug. 3.
“My interest in the automotive sector started when I was a kid and my dad had Ron’s Sports Centre in Nokomis. He sold boats and quads and ATVs.”
If there was one thing that attracted Jason towards his father’s work, it was people.
“Selling’s about building relationships, that’s what it is,” he said. “I’ve always said – and I’ve always lived by the motto – anybody can sell a vehicle to somebody once. It’s building those relationships with people, selling them a vehicle, selling their kids a vehicle, that’s what keeps me coming, is just building relationships.”
After Ron’s Sports Centre closed, Jason’s father went to Watrous Mainline. Jason followed.
“I started at Watrous Mainline right out of high school in 1992,” he said.
From there, Jason went to Alberta in 1999 to manage Adams Pontiac in Wetaskiwin. He stayed there until 2004, when Mainline bought a Rosetown dealership.
“We had a nine-month-old, we wanted to get back to Saskatchewan and be close to family and so then I’ve been with Mainline Auto Group as a partner for the last 18 years.”
Recently, Jason and his wife Gennifer had decided to look at something different. Their son, Preston, had just graduated high school. Their daughter Audrey, is in Grade 9. Both wanted to move closer to their parents. If they were going to make a move, Jason said, this was the time.
The FFUN Group, which owns South 20, reached out to Jason about becoming dealer partner/general manager.
“It was time for me to go on my own and an opportunity came up for Humboldt and we jumped on it because of the area being closer to our family,” Jason said.
“My wife being from Watrous and me being from Nokomis, it just made a lot of sense to get us back here.”
Both Jason and his wife are active in the community. In Rosetown Gennifer was on music boards, dance boards, kid care boards, while Jason was involved in hockey, particularly the Senior AAA Redwings. He was part of an effort to bring the Allan Cup – the national senior amateur men’s ice hockey championship – to town.
“I build a lot of relationships through the hockey world and running the senior team and stuff, and we look forward to getting involved in the community.”
As the general manager, Jason said he wants to provide the quality of service that people had come to expect from South 20 in previous years. He’ll be building a team that’s excited to be part of the dealership.
Jason said he invites people to come and experience the new South 20.
“There’s going to be some changes and I just invite anybody to come out here,” he said. “No news, good news, bad news, I’d like to hear all the news. I just like to hear it and I’d like people to open up and come see me.”
Jason added he’s ordered 60 new RVs for the dealership, which should be arriving this winter.
