MT Dealer Profiles

In November 2017, just 16 months after stepping down from his role as CEO at Ridgeway following the sale of the group to Marshall for £106.9m, John O’Hanlon launched Waylands Automotive with the acquisition of a Volvo franchise in Reading. O’Hanlon, who went on to reveal a five-year plan to turn Waylands into a £100m-turnover business, has since seen his ...

Dealer group Spirit Hyundai differentiates itself by building strong relationships with customers Formed in 1991, Spirit was one of the first VW-sponsored dealers. The Hyundai franchise was added in 2005 before the VW element was sold to Lister Group in 2011. At this point MD Adam Derbyshire took over the business from his dad. Spirit Hyundai has two outlets, in ...

So you’re thinking about getting your next car. You’ve found two you like, one offered by a dealer and another by an enthusiast. Both types of seller have their advantages, but what you really want is a dealer who is also an enthusiast. That’s what you get when you go to BMS Car Sales. William Hall, the owner of BMS, ...

Motorists driving into London along the M4 cannot miss the cluster of flagship dealer showrooms alongside the motorway on the Great West Road, including for the past year Kia. Looking to fill a major open point, Kia consulted a business with long experience of the challenging west London market. Norton Way Group had been a Honda dealer since 1972 at ...

Minutes after turning off the M60 and driving into Stockport you arrive at an impressive motor alley of car showrooms, the various sites almost all owned by the Lookers Group. The area has seen significant change recently, and among several major investments the finishing touches are just being applied to a £0.5m refurbishment of the group’s Renault/Dacia outlet. Changes have ...

Local motorists passing the familiar Haverfordwest showroom of west Wales dealer group Pembroke Motor Services (PMS) cannot help but notice that major changes are underway. The Chrysler Jeep signage has been replaced by Nissan branding as the dealership, owned by John Green, switches to the Japanese brand with a £500,000 investment in the seven-car showroom and a 16-bay workshop. Green ...

The purpose-built Swansway Jaguar Crewe showroom opened its doors on 1 April following a £5.5m investment. The opening marked the premium brand’s return to Crewe after a long absence; a major coup for family-owned Swansway which happens to be based in the town. The 10-car showroom boasts Jaguar’s latest corporate identity, has space to display 40 used cars and its ...

To be among just three UK dealers named among a franchise’s best outlets in Europe for customer service is an achievement. To win this accolade two years in succession is remarkable but in fact Burrows Toyota in Barnsley has been the recipient of the Toyota Ichiban award for customer service for three of the past four years. The name comes ...

The family-run Ancaster Group has been a mainstay of the local south London community since it was established in 1949 by Harold Cole, father of current chairman Robert Cole. Launched as a garage to repair and restore trucks it opened its first franchised site in Croydon in 1956 when it started selling Standard Triumph. In 1972 it was one of ...

In February 2015 Shropshire based dealer group Greenhous purchased two Ford dealerships in Newtown and Welshpool in mid-Wales from WR Davies. Over the last 18 months the Newtown Ford business has been redeveloped to accommodate a new Transit Centre. To help run the group’s first Ford outlets Greenhous employed Tony Mellish, who had wide fleet experience wiht Ford. Initially fleet ...