Scrappage puts a smile on faces
CAR sales may have dropped 50% in darkest weeks recently but Benfield Motor Group has climbed three places to 23rd in the Top 250.
It gets there and continues to lead the car sellers with 2007 figures. However, chief executive Mark Squires, in a more up-to-date mood, has also been able to announce profits up 40% in the first quarter this year.
Since the Government announced the scrappage scheme in April, orders at Benfield (listed as Addison Motors), has gone from 10% down to 45% up.
Benfield, which employs 1,100 people in the North East and has more than 25 outlets, says like many other dealers that the scheme has led to a dramatic and positive reversal in new cars sales.
It gleefully points out on its website that for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, when a litre of petrol cost 38p – and Bobby McFerrin sang Don't Worry, Be Happy – it's possible to own a brand new Alfa Romeo for less than £9,000.
The state encouragement for drivers of cars 10 years and older to trade up to a brand new model with a £1,000 windfall matched by the manufacturer, means an Alfa MiTo 1.4 16V Turismo may be had for £8,995.
The last Alfa Romeo sold in the UK for under £9,000 was the five door Alfa 33 in 1989.
Other Newcastle firms among the table climbers include RH Patterson up three to 30 and Jennings up two on 46.
Jennings has come far since 1917, when it switched from repairing bicycles. It believes it may now be the largest independent UK Ford Dealer group in the country.
RH Patterson, with showrooms also in Shiremoor, Hexham, and Wallsend, goes back even further – to 1911.
Since 2007 it has been a subsidiary of Glasgow based Arnold Clark Automobiles, Europe’s largest independent dealer with more than 145 branches.
Talking point of the trade in many quarters, however, is the rise and rise of Vertu (Bristol Street Motors), which has just raised £30m to fund further expansion from Newcastle.
Not yet three years old, it has soared up the table to 88th, having entered for the first time at 168th last year.
Now dealing from Morpeth down to the South West of England, it contains something of the spirit of that old high ranker of earlier years Reg Vardy plc, chief executive of Vertu, Robert Forrester, having been managing director there at the time the business was sold to Pendragon in 2006.
Bill Teasdale, non-executive director of Vertu, was chairman of the audit committee at Reg Vardy. Karen Anderson, Vertu’s finance director, was previously group financial controller of the Vardy organisation.
Vertu, however, has yet to overtake Colebrook and Burgess, of North Tyneside, SG Petch of Darlington and Springfield of Washington.
ALSO ON THE LIST
Colebrook and Burgess has slipped a place to 64th, SG Petch – active in Darlington, Durham, Middlesbrough, Richmond and York – level pegs at 80. And Springfield, with seven outlets in the north of the region, has slipped three to 85.
Fawdington in Newcastle is up 13 places to 112 with 2007 figures, while Sherwoods of Darlington, Stockton and Northallerton at 115 is 28 places up in its 81st year of trading.
Hodgson Newcastle, spawned from a bankrupt filling station in 1959, is 127th this year, down a place, and Mike Pulman at Durham is up six places to 201.
RMB Automotive of Stockton, though only in business since 2003, is already a Top 250 climber – rising one this year to 175th.
Managing director Robert Bennett set up the company with a purchase of two Toyota centres, a Lexus centre and a Mercedes bodyshop in Yarm and Darlington.
The firm has since had three additional centres built and has fully renovated the original sites.
Fleet Factors of Middlesbrough, whose operations now take in Scotland and some other parts of our region, including Durham, Gateshead and Richmond, has climbed 15 places to 213.
North East Truck and Van Dealers of Billingham are up five to 97th with higher turnover.
But Bell Car Sales, included this time through its 2007 accounts, may have been listed for the last time.
The 25-year-old firm succumbed to recession despite £36m sales. It went into liquidation in March with the closure of operations at Longbenton and East Boldon. This ended 25 jobs. Bell Car Sales was known as Pearsons Garage when the business was launched at Newcastle in 1984.
