Marshall Ford in Bury St Edmunds has taken on 26 staff following the closure of Lookers’ Land Rover outlet in the town.However, consultations may yet result in 18 of those being made redundant if they cannot be redeployed to other Marshall Motor Group dealerships. 

Christopher Walkinshaw, Marshall Motor Group business development director, said: “We’re working to a redundancy plan with the staff that have transferred over which may result in 18 redundancies but no more than that.”

Marshall operates five Land Rover dealerships and two Jaguar dealerships.

Lookers’ decision to close the dealership was “based on a review of the rent and location”.

Land Rover said: “An authorised repairer will be operated at the site by the Marshall group while we establish our own authorised repairer on a different site in the area.”

Elsewhere, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has been left with a hole in central London after Pendragon decided to close its Stratstone of Mayfair aftersales site.

The workshop at Grays Inn Road ceases trading later this month, leaving owners of JLR vehicles without an authorised facility in central London.

Remaining Land Rover authorised repairers within seven miles include Charles Hurst at Battersea and Park Royal, JLC at Herne Hill, North One at Kings Cross and Wimbledon Service Centre.

Land Rover said: “We are still in discussions on a
way forward for our servicing arrangements .”