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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 bodyshop at the Cambridgeshire site, generating a turnover of £65m.
With Smiths on board, the group now has a collective turnover of £2.9 billion across over 200 sales outlets and it represents 25 vehicle marques.
Daniel Fitzjohn, managing director of Smiths said, “Joining the RAA was a big consideration for us and we looked at every programme in detail to understand the upside of the savings and the potential consequences of changing some of our suppliers but the answer was clear to me; the overall benefit of RAA membership was too significant to ignore.”
He added “Also, it’s not just the commercial advantage of the RAA, I value the opportunity to meet the other Members to share ideas and improve our own business as a result.”
John Matthews, Director of the RAA, added, “this year has seen much higher levels of interest from dealer groups across the country interested in becoming an RAA Member because the pressure on their margins has never been higher.”
“The savings we deliver are game changing for every business we meet because RAA deals give Plc buying power to medium sized and often family-run dealer groups.”