West Motor Company acquires former Mercedes-Benz Retail Group dealership

West Motor Company is targeting growth with a new car franchise partner after acquiring the former Mercedes-Benz Retail Group dealership in Bromley.

The London-based car retailer, which currently operates a Jaguar Land Rover approved service centre and used car operation in New Malden and took on the Suzuki franchise in Barnes around a year ago.

Now dealer principal Andrew Joaman is hopeful that a new partner will “jump at the chance” to occupy the prominent, 30,000 square foot showroom on Wickham Road, Beckenham.

“It’s a great facility that will give us room for 60 to 70 used cars on the forecourt and delivers a showroom that requires little alteration apart from the signage,” said Joaman.

“We see it as a really good opportunity and I’m hopeful that a new franchise partner will jump at the chance to be represented from the site.”

The team from West Motor Company are currently assessing the requirements of a former Mercedes-Benz specialist workshop after identifying a potential to ramp-up its servicing capability.

Joaman is positive about the group’s ability to work with a new franchise partner around a year after it completed the transition from Mitsubishi Motors in the UK to Suzuki in Barnes.

He said: “Suzuki is going really well for us and we’re keen to expand.

“The new site is sizable and clearly there’s a desire to get up an running quickly, so we may do that with used cars initially, but the aim is to have a new franchised partner in there as soon as we can.”

Mercedes-Benz Retail Group’s former Bromley dealership site was closed as part of an initial consolidation of the OEM-owned car retail group’s network in June 2020.

It later sold off its Epsom dealership to Sandown Motors 

Mercedes has since agreed a deal to transfer its North London dealerships to the ownership of top AM100 car retail group Sytner after revealing a plan to divest itself of its UK car retail operation.

News of the sale followed Mercedes’ announcement that it planned to axe up to 20% of its German franchised dealerships and 10% of its global network by 2025 as part of its shift to a direct, agency model retail model.