Brayleys expands with acquisition from Lookers

AM100 dealer group Brayleys is set to climb up the rankings from its current 89th position with its acquisition of Orpington Honda from Lookers.

Lookers has now exited Honda representation, except for a dealership in Belfast with a Honda motorcycles franchise.

Coming two years after it bought Romford Honda from Glyn Hopkin, Brayleys has now secured total coverage for Honda new car sales around the M25 and it becomes the Japanese brand's largest private franchisee with eight showrooms and 10 aftersales locations.

The Orpington outlet joins Brayley Honda’s network of dealerships in Enfield, St Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Ruislip, Thames Ditton, Ewell, Leatherhead and Romford plus a stand-alone aftersales facility in Grays, Essex.

Brayleys also represents Kia, Mazda, Renault and Dacia at 15 locations

Managing director Paul Brayley, who started the business in 2003 with its first Honda franchise in St Albans, said: “Despite continuing headwinds from the global semi-conductor shortage and the pandemic, Brayleys delivered an exceptional financial performance in 2021, which has given us the confidence to enter 2022 with an optimistic outlook.

"The addition of Orpington Honda into the Brayleys family gives the group complete coverage of the M25 for Honda with whom we have been proud to partner for almost twenty years.

"All of our franchise brands are well positioned with the roll-out of EV models, so we anticipate another busy year in our showrooms and also online sales, which we fully integrated last year.”

In 2018 Brayley sold a majority shareholding of the group to Dubai-based AW Rostamani Group but remained as managing director and shareholder.

AW Rostamani chairman Khalid Al Rostamani said the further expansion of Brayleys is testament to the excellent stewardship of the group by Paul Brayley and his dedicated team, during exceedingly challenging conditions in the UK car market.

"We remain committed in our strategy to build the automotive retail interests of AW Rostamani Group in this important territory and look forward to developing the business further in 2022 following another solid year of growth, which has been achieved despite the impact of the pandemic and global manufacturing supply shortages,” he added.