ACQUISITIVE car dealership group Vertu Motors has wasted little time in securing its first purchase of 2012 after signing a £2m deal for a Vauxhall business.
The Team Valley-based plc announced yesterday that it had acquired the trade and “certain assets” of the dealership in Northampton from W Grose Northampton Limited. The turnover of the business in the year to December 31, 2010, was £20m.
The current dealership premises have been acquired on a short-term lease from Grose. The business will be relocated to a new state-of-the art dealership which will be built on freehold land in Northampton.
The total investment in this new dealership will be £4.5m, and it is estimated that the new site will open at the end of next year.
Vertu, which has grown rapidly through acquisition since it was established in 2006, now has a total of 11 Vauxhall dealerships in its estate. The latest deal means AIM-listed Vertu now has 83 outlets, including 80 franchised and three non-franchised operations.
Chief executive Robert Forrester said yesterday: “We are delighted to expand our operations in Northampton. This is our 11th Vauxhall dealership and reflects the growing scale of our Vauxhall operations.”
Vertu has had a busy start to the new year and, earlier this week, announced the appointment of Nigel Stead as a new independent non-executive director. Stead is former chief executive of Lex Autolease and has several other non-exec appointments.
He said he was attracted to the North East company because of its record of acquisitions.
“I am pleased to be joining the board of Vertu Motors, having admired its consistent growth record,” he said. “I intend to utilise my skills and experience in the motor industry to help the group evaluate opportunities as it continues to expand and grow.”
The company unveiled a 7% rise in revenues to £547m in its latest interim results for the six months to the end of August, but pre-tax profit was down 16% to £4.1m. Chief executive Robert Forrester said the drop was due to the start-up costs of several embryonic dealerships, as well as the fact that the scrappage scheme was still running in 2010.
