Who we are

Ashgrove Marketing has been around for a while — long enough to collect a few great stories, a lot of car dealer stickers, and at least three generations.

It all started with Jack, my grandfather.
Back in the day, he travelled the entire South Island selling calendars for Allen Calendars — plus printed pens, key tags, dealer stickers, and whatever other novelty items people didn’t know they needed yet.

For 20 out of his 26 years on the road, he even took his sales hustle to the North Island. And yes — he had four kids at home. So travelling for work might’ve been partly business... partly strategic escape plan. We’ll never know.

In 1991, my dad Phil took over and officially rebranded the business as Ashgrove Marketing.
He expanded things even further — adding flags to the product lineup and, later in 2006, introducing Autoglym into the mix — which ended up becoming a huge part of who we are today. The business kept growing, the product range kept widening, and the family story kept getting longer.

But the biggest thing Phil brought wasn’t just new products — it was relationships.
He spent years building genuine connections with customers all over New Zealand, and many of those relationships are still going strong today. A lot of the people we work with now are the same people Dad called on decades ago.

Then in 2020, it was my turn. I’m Nathan, and I’m doing my best to keep the family tradition alive:
good service, good products, and a sense of humour to survive the chaos.

We’re still proudly South Island–based, still helping dealerships and customers all over New Zealand, and still doing what our family’s been doing for decades — finding the good stuff, selling it honestly, and enjoying the ride along the way.

If you ever need a hand or just want to talk shop, we’re here.