North East vehicle retailer Vertu Motors has started the year with expansion in Yorkshire following an £8.8m deal.
The listed Gateshead group – which trades under Bristol Street Motors, Vertu, Farnell and Macklin Motors brands – has snapped up the trade and assets of four Volkswagen Passenger car dealerships in West Yorkshire from Goodman Retail Limited, a trading subsidiary of Sytner Group Limited.
The firm has made the acquisition of Volkswagen dealerships in Leeds, Huddersfield, Harrogate and Skipton for total consideration of around £8.8m, and the board expects the acquisition to be earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership, which ends on 28 February 2021.
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The dealerships collectively had revenues of £112m and pre-tax profit of £600,000 in combined accounts for 2018.
The purchase of the four substantial Volkswagen leasehold dealerships represents further expansion of the group’s Vertu Volkswagen brand to complements its 13 other outlets in Yorkshire covering the Nissan, Renault, Jaguar, Land Rover, Vauxhall and Honda brands.
After the acquisition, the group will operate nine Volkswagen Passenger car dealerships.
The deal includes a goodwill payment of £1.35m and has been settled in cash from Vertu’s existing resources.
Meanwhile, the group announced that last month it exited its Volvo franchise in Derby, transferring the business to a subsidiary of Marshall Motor Holdings plc.
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The premises, however, were retained by the group which is carrying out refurbishment works ahead of starting a new franchise operation there in the coming months.
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This month Vertu has also opened two new franchise outlets for Hyundai in the North East – at Silverlink, North Tyneside, in the former Infiniti dealership and within the existing Ford and Honda operation in Morpeth, Northumberland.
This brings its number of Hyundai outlets to 10, making it one of the manufacturer’s largest 海角视频 partners.
Robert Forrester, CEO of Vertu Motors said: “We are delighted with these changes to our portfolio, especially the Volkswagen acquisition. The addition of these excellent dealerships augments the group’s representation of the Volkswagen brand and expands our operational footprint in Yorkshire.
“These portfolio changes reflect the group’s strategy to continue to grow a significantly scaled franchised dealership business built on the back of a strong balance sheet, scalable operational systems and excellent relationships with its manufacturer partners.”
Vertu Motors is now the fifth largest automotive retailer in the 海角视频 with a network of 127 sales outlets across the 海角视频.