Scottish Nissan and Kia dealer Dicksons of Forres and Inverness has sold its long-established town centre showroom in Forres to housing developers for an undisclosed sum, ahead of relocating into a £750,000 new showroom half a mile away next September.

“When Dicksons was formed at Tytler Street in 1961 our current site was in a prime position fronting the main Aberdeen to Inverness trunk road,” says managing director Alistair Scrimgeour.

“Since then we’ve been bypassed and that’s led to far fewer people passing our door. Our new site will once again have a frontage on to the A96 trunk road.”

All 27 staff from Tytler Street will move to the new address on the Greshop Industrial Estate.

Finance director Jim Gibson adds: “We decided to relocate sales and service and leave our bodyshop centre where it is on St Catherines Street. The Forres repair business is too big to come with us and it makes little difference to the day-to-day running to leave it and its 25 staff in place.”

Dickson Motors has occupied Tytler Street since 1961, although Scrimgeour and Gibson acquired the site as part of an MBO in 1989. It now trades as Dicksons of Forres.