Joe Elasmar epitomises the phrase ‘you make your own luck.’ Educated decisions, calculated risks and plenty of hard work is how he’s found himself as Australia’s only independent motorcycle distributor at just 38 years old. Even as a kid growing up in the southeast Melbourne suburb of Pascoe Vale, measured risks rather than hope and chance were what made things happen for him.
“I bought my first bike and my parents didn’t even know it was mine,” he grins. “I told them it was my friend’s bike who needed to store it at our place – it was a YZ80J.”
We’re sitting in the boardroom of a flash new 35-tenancy warehouse that he recently built, overlooking the suburb he grew up in. There’s a likeable shyness to his demeanour that belies the expanse of the new building around us, that not only houses his successful enterprise, but 34 other local businesses also. As well as a landlord, he’s a dad of three boys under 10 and he’s the sole director of Urban Moto Imports (UMI) which looks after the distribution of eight brands across Australia and New Zealand. With Royal Enfield, MV Agusta, Benelli, Peugeot, Super Soco, Rieju, Torrot and Segway in its portfolio, UMI celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021 and the company has experienced steady growth in the
