Family motor retail business Sherwoods has expanded into Teesside with the acquisition of the former Patrick Vauxhall dealership and bodyshop in Stockton.

The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, is expected to lift Sherwood’s £55m annual turnover to £70m. It secures 43 jobs in sales, aftersales and accident repair, swelling the company’s workforce to more than 200.

Sherwoods, founded in 1928, was taken over by managing director Alasdair MacConachie 25 years ago.

It has Vauxhall at its headquarters in Darlington, Chevrolet and a used car operations on adjacent sites, and a Vauxhall dealership in Northallerton.

MacConachie said: “The deal made a lot of sense. We are a particularly healthy dealership and adding Stockton to our family certainly won’t do us any harm.

“The Stockton site is perfect for us to maximise passing trade as it is on a main road from the A66 to Ingleby Barwick, Europe’s biggest private housing estate. We are all tremendously excited by the new challenge that lies ahead.

“I believe the site has yet to fulfil its full potential and I am convinced we have the right management team to move it in the right direction.”

He hopes to add a Chevrolet franchise to the site in the future.

The dealership will be run by MacConachie’s son Simon as general manager.