Camden Motors has opened its second Car Shop used cars operation and is planning a third outlet by the end of the year.

Launch of the new business in Manchester comes three years after Camden opened its original Car Shop in Northampton. The third outlet is likely to be in the south.

Adrian Lewis, Car Shop operations director, says: “We plan to have about eight more Car Shops opening in the next four to five years. The programme is dependent on finding the right profile of vehicle sourcing partners and the right profile of vehicles.”

Key locations are thought to include Glasgow/Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol, London, the south coast and the north-east. Camden says the Northampton outlet sold 5500 used cars last year, mostly less than four years old, with 95 per cent to customers within its local region. Manchester is expected to retail 400 cars a month by the end of the year, but ultimately should outsell Northampton because of the larger catchment area.

Car Shop defleets vehicles for a number of contract hire and leasing companies, but Camden is looking to set up partnerships with outright purchase fleets.

This would enable it to operate a closed loop by retailing new cars to fleets and then disposing of them through Car Shop.