Why LSH Auto MD Martyn Webb is building a ‘car retail village’

Sitting in a small office in the soon-to-be-completed sprawl of LSH Auto UK’s Mercedes-Benz Stockport facility, Martyn Webb, the group’s UK managing director, seems ready to pinch himself.

Looking at the hive of on-site activity bringing the group’s new £65 million, 10-acre statement site off the M60 motorway closer to completion, the sense of a new retail group stamping its mark on a new territory is impossible to avoid.

LSH Auto UK’s parent company, Lei Shing Hong, which is based in Hong Kong, is already the world’s largest Mercedes-Benz retailer. It has more than 240 retail sites in Europe, Asia and Australia and is working to cement its presence – and a distinct DNA – in the UK. LSH Auto UK was formed in May 2016 by Lei Shong Hong’s £121.4m acquisition of Mercedes-Benz Retail Group’s entire Manchester and Birmingham market area.