Jebb McIntosh dies at 80 after building CMH from two dealerships
DURBAN — Jebb McIntosh, the chartered accountant who helped turn two small KwaZulu-Natal dealerships into Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), died on Monday, 2 November, aged 80. Fifty years after he and business partner Maldwyn Zimmerman opened Chevrolet and Datsun dealerships in 1976, McIntosh was still running the group, which had grown to 102 dealerships and 51 car rental outlets.
CMH chairman James Dixon told shareholders that McIntosh had spent his final day at the office directing the business. He was the Durban group’s longest-serving director, having joined its board in 1976, eleven years before CMH listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. “For those in the motor industry, Jebb and CMH were synonymous,” the board said in its announcement on Tuesday.
From Chevrolet and Datsun to First Car Rental
As the dealership network grew, McIntosh helped take CMH into vehicle hire through First Car Rental. That expansion gave the group a second national business alongside its showrooms. For South Africans who had never bought a car from a CMH dealer, a rental counter became another way of encountering the company he had built.
In his later years as chief executive, McIntosh steered the group towards Chinese and Indian manufacturers as their cars gained buyers in South Africa. By the time of his death, CMH dealers represented Haval, Chery and Mahindra alongside established franchises such as Ford, Isuzu and Nissan. The names above the showroom doors had changed considerably since he and Zimmerman started out.
Dixon remembered McIntosh for his command of detail and the judgement colleagues had come to rely on. McIntosh is survived by his wife, Liz, his five children, Donna, Samantha, Sarah-Lynn, Anne and Cathy, and their families.
Anyone with additional information can contact the press desk at press@townpress.co.za or drop a tip.