Tag Archives: mercedes-benz

Mercedes-Benz has appointed Iain Forsyth as the new managing director of Mercedes-Benz Vans UK, a role he will assume from 1st March 2025. In his new position, Forsyth will be responsible for the strategic development of the van business in the UK, as well as the digitalisation of key value streams. He will take over from Robert Veit, who has ...

Almost two years after launch Mercedes-Benz is claiming success for its agency model in the UK. In the year to September the brand registered 80,252 cars, an increase of 20% year on year while retail sales rose 29%. The road to agency has been a rocky one for many brands. Ford launched its agency model in the Netherlands as a ...

Stephen Trowell, the managing director of Hedin Automotive London, is leaving the company. Trowell was appointed to the MD role in early 2023, heading up the Mercedes-Benz dealerships bought by Hedin from Mercedes-Benz Retail Group in 2022. Before taking the MD slot he was market area director Mercedes-Benz Retail Group for over a year. He has also held the sales ...

Group 1 Automotive hit the acquisition trail in the UK this month with the purchase of four Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Hertford from L&L Automotive. The dealership locations in Bishop’s Stortford, Hemel Hempstead, Hertford and Stevenage are contiguous with several other dealerships currently owned and operated by Group 1 in the UK and are expected to sell more than 2,800 new ...

As high temperatures return to a number of parts of the world setting off forest fires that can rapidly surround whole communities, I see a parallel to the challenges that we face as an industry. Over the last 10 days I’ve participated (with some restrictions due to Covid) in three events and had a number of conversations with friends and ...

JCT600 saw pre-tax profits decline 16.3% to £36.03m on turnover down 2.5% to £1.41bn in 2023. In accounts filed at Companies House it said that the move by Mercedes-Benz to an agency model had reduced turnover by £64m. As part of a strategic re-organisation of the company, it gave up the Vauxhall and Peugeot franchises in Castleford and Menston. “The ...

  May was a bruising month for a raft of car brands in the UK with double digit sales declines. Polestar saw registrations fall -69.6% to 314 units for the month while Fiat saw sales decline -44.9% to 523 units. Bentley was down -37.6% to 68 units and Vauxhall -32.1% to 6,026 units. Toyota fell -17.9% to 6,834 units, Ford ...

Hedin Mobility, the Swedish company headed by Anders Hedin (pictured), has expanded again with the purchase through a subsidiary of BMW and MINI dealer group Dubbelsteyn and its dealerships near Rotterdam. Hedin has been on the acquisition trail. Last year it bought Torpedo Gruppe’s 21 dealerships in Germany, representing smart, Hyundai, and Land Rover and the Renova BMW and MINI ...

Agency is opening up opportunities for dual-franchising and doing business with new Chinese brands entering the UK market. That is a key finding of the latest Savills Spotlight Research on the UK Automotive Market, which forecast further consolidation in the sector with some brands reducing their footprint and more dealer group acquisitions and restructuring. “The agency model will inevitably require ...

After a hectic couple weeks with our Members’ Spring Meeting in Berlin and some consulting deadlines, it’s back to the blogs.  I’m sure you will have managed without my random thoughts on the issues of the day… I feel like I talk about agency a lot, but I did check back on my previous blogs, and it’s actually been a ...