HONOLULU - William "Bill" van den Hurk, president and owner of Aloha Auto Group, has been nominated for the 2011 TIME Dealer of the Year award.
Aloha Auto Group does business as Aloha Kia, which has a dealership in Kahului.
Van den Hurk, 65, was one of a number of dealers around the country to be honored at the 94th annual National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Expo in San Francisco earlier this month. Van den Hurk was chosen to represent the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition. He was one of only 52 automobile dealers nominated for the 42nd annual award.
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WILLIAM van den HURK
Coping with the downturn
The award is sponsored by TIME in association with Goodyear and in cooperation with the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Van den Hurk was an auto salesman, manager and owner in California from the late 1960s through the mid 1990s. In 1997, he bought the Aloha Hyundai dealership in Honolulu and added Kia to his auto lineup in the next year.
Statewide, Van den Hurk owns four Kia and two Harley-Davidson dealerships.
In an announcement of his nomination, he said his business has survived the recent economic downturn, although his staff was cut by half.
"But having survived financially and been able to rebuild our company and bring the employment staff back by 40 employees has been extremely rewarding," he said.
