Editor’s Choice

Cambria Automobiles turned in a strong performance in the year to 31 August with pre-tax profit up 37.4% to £12.5m on turnover up 4.4% to £657.8m. The company has changed the profile of the brands it represents over the past two years, adding two Bentley dealerships, one Lamborghini and one McLaren dealership. The group saw a like-for-like reduction in new ...

When news broke that Jardine Group was exiting, the Honda brand employees at the centres in the Berkshire towns of Reading and Newbury feared for their future. But while two of the four outlets were closed, in September the Reading and Newbury centres were sold and staff now find themselves part of Marshall Group, ranked seventh in the Motor Trader ...

The Independent Motor Dealers Association (IMDA) has appointed ex-Jardine manager Simon Blackwell (pictured) as a director. Blackwell has recently worked with Inchcape in its JLR operation. Before that he served with LSH Auto UK, as group general manager for nine sites taking in two market areas, Birmingham and Manchester. He spent over seven years with Jardine where he was group ...

The Renault Zoe took the top two spots in Auto Trader’s lastest Fastest Selling Index, marking the first time this has been done by an EV. The 2015 (automatic) ZOE took first place but was closely followed by its younger 2016 (automatic) counterpart in second – if priced to the market, they’re capable of taking a respective 21 and 23 ...

New car registrations fell -6.7% in October with 10,348 fewer cars registered than in October last year. The decline was driven by falling demand from private consumers, with registrations down -13.2%. Business demand also fell, while fleet registrations remained stable at +0.3%. Registrations of diesel cars fell for the 31st month, down -28.3%, while petrols also declined, by -3.2%. Electrified ...

Marshall Motor Holdings has appointed a retail industry specialist as a non-executive director. Nicky Dulieu trained as an accountant with Marks & Spencer and worked with the company for 23 years in a variety of roles, including finance director of the Food Division. She joined fashion chain Hobbs as its finance director in 2006 before becoming its chief operating officer ...

Smiths of Peterborough is the latest dealer group to join the Retail Automotive Alliance (RAA), taking the number of Shareholder Members to 25. Smiths is a 3rd generation family run business with almost 80 years trading history, centred around Peterborough and Ilkeston in Derbyshire. They have several franchises including Nissan, Renault, Vauxhall, Hyundai and Dacia. They also have an all-makes ...

Group 1 president and CEO Earl Hesterberg said the UK used car market was strong and marred only by the high percentage of nearly new cars being registered. He told analysts last week it was a difficult balance to get right but he needed to support carmakers and keep vehicles pumping through the system. Analysis of the new car market ...

The UK business of Group 1 was hit in the third quarter by uncertainty from the ‘political turmoil’ surrounding Brexit. Total same store UK revenues fell 2.3% to $547.6m (£425m) while gross profit decreased 8.7% to $59.6m. It said continued weakness in consumer confidence and the overall car market due to Brexit continued to exert downward pressure on new vehicle ...

SsangYong Motor UK turned in pre-tax losses of -£8.3m on turnover of £64.2m in 2018. The company generated -£9.7m losses on £60.8m turnover the prior year. Challenges it faced in 2018 included the switch away from diesel and some stocking issues, now resolved. “We continued to address the key challenges for the business in 2018, the results for which include ...