No more Stellantis UK network cuts despite ‘theoretical’ 40-partner plan

Stellantis UK managing director Paul Willcox has insisted that there will be no more cuts to the carmaker’s UK retail network, despite revealing a ‘theoretical’ 40-partner plan for the longer term.

Willcox, who is addressing 2,300 retailers from franchisee partner businesses at a dealer conference at the Birmingham NEC this week, insists that there is no plan to trim dealer partner numbers further following a process which will reduce the count from 219 investors to 177 by this June.

But, in an interview this morning (January 24) updating AM on the OEM’s network restructure and its transition to an agency model distribution strategy, he said that that consolidation and business transition would help deliver a much smaller group of partner businesses.