Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
The Peter Vardy Group is to close its CARZ used car supermarkets in Dundee and Glasgow.
The dealer group, ranked 31 in the Motor Trader Top 200 Dealer Groups with £560.7m turnover, said the move came about as a result of post-COVID used car supply shortages. Successive years of declining new car sales have impacted used car supplies in the UK.
The company retains its CARZ supermarkets in Aberdeen, Edinburghm Kirkcaldy, Motherwell, Perth and Grangemouth.
Peter Vardy also announced that it had been appointed to represent MG, with the first two sites to open this month in Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh.
This follows the groups recent appointment as the sole distributor in Scotland for the new Ora brand, Great Wall Motor’s premium pure electric vehicles.
The company said there would be redundancies, but it was working hard to offer alternative jobs to those affected.
New roles have been created to accommodate affected employees, and the government agency PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) has been appointed to provide additional support. The group’s Welfare team is also readily available to aid and guidance,
“Proposing the closure of any business, when the primary focus is on colleague engagement, welfare and career development is of course a disappointment.
“I am sorry to and for our affected colleagues, but we will do everything in our power to support them in this period.
“The lack of a used car supply for car supermarkets has driven this decision, it hasn’t been performance or skill or the quality of our teams, it’s a change in the market conditions.
“While the decision to close our used car supermarkets is tough for us all, we firmly believe that reallocating resources, funds, and talent to the growing divisions within the group will bolster long-term prospects for the business and its colleagues,” said Peter, CEO of Peter Vardy.