A dealer group specialising in Vauxhall has begun to diversify through acquisitions.

Eden Motor Group, headed by Graeme Potts, has taken over the Alan Gibson dealership in Basingstoke which holds Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Hyundai and Mazda.

Gibson, who sold his Volvo dealership to Snows Group in 2010, is understood to be retiring.

Until now Eden, which Potts founded in 2008 in a joint venture with Vauxhall, has been focused only on Vauxhall and Chevrolet sales, with nine dealerships in the south of England.

Potts told AM the business was attractive because Basingstoke is in the epicentre of Eden's marketplace and it had been looking for possible growth opportunities for some time.

"We've built a reasonable sized business around the Vauxhall and Chevrolet franchises which has been a very good growth story for a few years and broadening the range of representation is the next focus of our corporate plan," Potts added.

Potts runs Eden with great emphasis on employee and customer culture - his dealerships are closed on Sundays to allow all staff quality family time, stay open until 9pm two days per week to cater for time-pressed buyers and he recently spoke at an AM conference about preferring to give a customer the deal of a lifetime than trade out any over-aged stock.