Editor’s Choice

Vertu Motors has acquired Hughes Group Holdings and its subsidiary Hughes of Beaconsfield for £21.8m. The deal includes assets of £12m and goodwill of £9.8m. For the year ended 31 December 2017, Hughes generated pre-tax profits of £2.1m on turnover of £150m. Hughes has represented Mercedes-Benz for over 40 years with dealerships in Beaconsfield and Aylesbury. The acquisition brings the ...

In recent years, we have seen operators such as Tesla, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover and SEAT all take up leases in retail centres like Bluewater and Westfield. Even more recently, Mitsubishi’s new retail store in Lakeside shopping centre, Thurrock, and the announcement of a further 11 sites in prime retail areas to follow, further confirms the trend. Historically, these prime ...

BCA turned in a strong performance in the year to 1 April 2018 with pre-tax profits up 34.6% to £75.9m on turnover up 19.8% to £2.4bn. During the year its UK vehicle remarketing division sold one million vehicles, up 6.5%. This was driven by strong growth in volume sourced from Webuyanycar, up 12.9% to 219,000 units. It was also bolstered ...

Dealers could see a hike in pre-registration activity with some cars dumped in the market before the new Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) regime comes into effect on 1 September. The WLTP cycle was developed using real-driving data and better represents everyday driving profiles. Some models will fare badly in the new test after the September deadline Derren ...

Uncertainty over Brexit has caused investment in the motor industry to halve in the first half of 2018 with just £347.3m earmarked for new models. That’s the headline finding of the SMMT’s UK Automotive 19th annual Sustainability Report which revealed the car manufacturing sector turned over a record £82bn in 2017, marking an eighth consecutive year of growth. But in ...

Concerns related to the future of diesel vehicles has now overtaken Brexit in affecting buyer confidence. This, according to a recent survey of leading UK brokers conducted by Paragon Motor Finance. According to the Paragon, the national government’s push to ‘eradicate’ diesel cars by 2040 in favour of hybrid vehicles has had serious ramifications on consumer confidence. The survey results ...

Dealers have been warned of the dangers of not having a policy in place for social media. A new survey found that 30% of businesses surveyed did not have a social media policy in place. This can potentially leave them exposed to reputational damage, disclosure of confidential information and inappropriate or harmful content or behavior, according to legal firm Howes ...

BCA Marketplace has rejected a proposed £1.6bn takeover offer from city private equity firm Apax Partners. BCA said on 9 May it received a preliminary and conditional approach from Apax regarding an all cash offer for the company of 200 pence per BCA share. “After careful consideration the board of BCA rejected the proposal. No further proposals have been received,” it said. ...

The average UK motor retailer produced a strong performance for the month of April reflecting the upturn in the new vehicle market and the continued strength in used car retailing. Dealers saw an average £9,900 increase in profits compared to April 2017, which saw profits of just £600, which was hit by a combination of the Easter holiday falling in ...

JCT600 has reported a record annual turnover, with revenues reaching £1.251 billion. This is a 2% year-on-year increase (£1.226bn). The Bradford-based car retailer says it has had a successful year, despite challenging market conditions and increasing competition. Despite declining new vehicle sales, JCT600 returned only a modest decline in the retail sector, significantly outperforming the overall market. Sales of used ...