When Arnold Clark chief executive Eddie Hawthorne openly conceded that he had initially felt the COVID-19 crisis would be “over by Easter”, it was clear that nobody in the sector could have imagined being in lockdown 12 months on.
Macklin Motors has completed the £1.5 million development of a new Motornation used car and van showroom in Lookers’ former Glasgow Volkswagen Van Centre.
Vertu Motors has “cemented” its position as the biggest Honda retailer in Europe with the acquisition of Hepworth Honda in Huddersfield.
Vertu Motors has acquired the naming rights to the Eagles Community Arena in Newcastle in a five-year deal.
Vertu Motors chief executive Robert Forrester has insisted that his business is not making a switch to online car sales after a 360% rise in end-to-end digital transactions in 2020.
Vertu Motors has invested in robotic process automation (RPA) to help improve productivity across previously manual data entry processing tasks.
The Vertu Motors board has said that the AM100 car retail group is positioned to realise “ambitious growth aspirations” after crediting a huge Vertu team effort for a creditable 2020 trading performance.
Vertu Motors is set to relocate its Kia Nottingham dealership into its existing Volkswagen dealership operation in the city as it continues to consolidate its UK retail operations.
Vertu Motors has reported that it expects its pre-tax profits for the financial year ending February 28, 2021, to exceed analysts’ current £18 million forecasts.
Vertu Motors’ Bristol Street Motors division has seen a Citroen franchise added into its Macclesfield Ford dealership operation as part of a £200,000 redevelopment of the facility.
Vertu Motors has promoted Honda Grantham general manager Mark Goode to the newly-created role of Vertu Motorcycles division brand director following the acquisition of BMW Motorrad Sunderland.
Vertu Motors has completed its long-awaited acquisition of 12 BMW, Mini and BMW Motorrad franchised motor retail outlets across five locations from Inchcape’s Cooper BMW division.
Inchcape UK CEO James Brealey has asserted that his retail group remains “committed” to its BMW and Mini franchises after confirming it is in the latter stages of disposing of sites in the North East and Croydon.
Vertu Motors has begun recruitment for a BMW division expected to be created from a multi-site acquisition to be completed during December.
Vertu Motors has appointed Chris Harris as retail and marketing director for its specialist and premium brand car dealerships.
Vertu Motors has confirmed that it is in discussion with a number of parties over the acquisition of “a number of BMW dealerships” following speculation that Inchape is set to sell a number of sites.
Suggestions that Ford car retailers could go out of business as the result of a Brexit-related change to the brand’s VAT invoicing have been branded as “scaremongering”.
Ford retailers who are unable to find £750,000-per-dealership site to fund a post-Brexit change to the brand’s VAT invoicing regime could be forced out of business, it has been claimed.
Vertu Motors’ COVID-19 recovery accelerated the AM100 PLC to a £19 million profit in Q2 to reverse a £14.3m Q1 loss and deliver a profit in a challenging period for automotive retail.
Vertu Motors has completed the acquisition of Sandicliffe Motor Group’s Kia dealership in Nottingham.
