AM Awards 2012: The winners

Knights is a privately owned car dealer group holding the BMW franchise with dealerships in Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent.

Arnold Clark Automobiles is Europe’s largest privately owned car dealer, selling in excess of 200,000 vehicles per year and generating an annual turnover of over £1.5 billion. Its founder, Sir Arnold Clark, is still at the helm of the company today as chairman and chief executive.

A 32% year-on-year fall in pre-tax profits in 2010 hasn’t dented the drive to grow through acquisition, an example of this being the recent opening of a Vauxhall dealership in Hanley, Staffordshire, purchased from Greenhous Group.

Group franchise representation was brought to 20 with the addition of Skoda in Inverness in 2010.

The Skoda franchise came with the purchase of the entire share capital of Delmore Cars Limited in November 2010 and the number of Skoda sites was then doubled after opening the new Skoda showroom in the Seafield area of Edinburgh in December.

2010 also saw the completion of the redevelopment work of the dealership in Ashton-in-Makerfield, adding a new Fiat sales and service operation to the existing Motorstore; the group acquired a Citroen and Hyundai dealership in Stirling, taking the number of franchises represented in the city to eight; work was completed on a purpose-built commercial vehicle centre in Newcastle upon Tyne and the Accrington Motorstore was closed as a retail sales outlet; a new Renault showroom was opened in Edinburgh; the loss-making Manchester and Stockport Honda leasehold dealerships were relinquished and resulted in the conversion of the Altrincham Honda dealership to represent the Kia franchise; a new Hyundai showroom opened in Dundee and Dundee Nissan was relocated to a new purpose-built facility in the city; an existing site in Liverpool was converted to accommodate the Kia franchise and a Fiat outlet was added to the dealership in Salford, Manchester.

Showrooms including the Motorstores in Liverpool and Sighthill, Edinburgh were redeveloped.

Additionally, the centres at Inverness Peugeot, Elgin Fiat, Workington Ford and the Peugeot, Citroen and Ford site in Dumfries all underwent major refurbishments.

Landmarks in its history include the opening of a £10 million custom built conference and training centre, GTG Training, opened in Glasgow in 2007 and caters for every aspect in automotive training whilst the IT and business skills division provides a broad range of business skill training courses and a conference area. Each year the group takes on many apprentices.

Arnold Clark opened its largest and most ambitious new-build project in October 2008.

The largest Arnold Clark Motorstore, located at junction 14 of the M6, cost £12 million, and accommodates 1,000 vehicles and employs over 200 new members of staff.

Work started in 2011 on a complex to house the group’s Volvo and Skoda franchises in Inverness.

The single storey structure is due for completion towards the end of 2011 when sales and administration staff transfer from the existing Volvo site at the east end of Harbour Road and from the current Skoda showroom on the Carse Industrial Estate.

The existing Skoda premises will become a bodyshop centre for the group’s Inverness franchises –Volvo, Skoda, Peugeot and Hyundai.

All servicing for Volvo and Skoda cars will be handled by the recently modernised Arnold Clark Peugeot site close to the new complex where separate Skoda and Volvo servicing areas are being established.

The existing Volvo showroom is to become a new Hyundai franchise which will move from its current location in the Arnold Clark Motorpoint centre on the other side of Harbour Road.

Starting out with a Volkswagen and Audi showroom in Newbury and a Volkswagen dealership in Wantage in 1997, a further brand was added to the portfolio in 1999 when Jewson Skoda in Oxford was purchased.

This was followed two years later with the addition of Volkswagen retailer Ridgeway Reading in 2001.

In 2004 the group gained preferred partner status from Volkswagen and Audi as well as opening a new vehicle preparation centre near Newbury.

In 2005, a second Audi Centre was acquired by the Ridgeway Group in Oxford and in March 2006, the company opened a new bodyshop operation.

In December 2006, Ridgeway Group bought the Pentagon Group, which added the Mercedes-Benz and smart brands as well as the cities of Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester.

The Pentagon Group also represents Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep in Portsmouth, Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles (truck and van) and Fuso Canter franchises in Poole, Portsmouth, Fareham, Southampton and Andover.

In 2007 Ridgeway Used Car Centres in Totton, Southampton and Portsmouth were opened.

At the turn of January 2010 the Ridgeway Group acquired two ex-Motorworld Volkswagen passenger car retailers in Oxford based at Oxford Motor Park, Kidlington and Iffley Road, Oxford [inc. a bodyshop and accident repair centre] bringing the group's Volkswagen site representation to five.

In November 2010 it opened two vehicle rental centres.

The first out of the Ridgeway Group Preparation Centre at Greenham, Berkshire [covering Newbury and Oxford] and the other at Mercedes-Benz of Southampton that offers low emission vehicles for rent featuring the latest in CO2 and low carbon emission technology.

Turnover in 2010 was £308 million on 14,000 new car sales and 1,264 LCV. The company is headed up by chairman, David Newman, chief executive officer John O’Hanlon and Jon Head, group operations director and employs over 750 staff across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, West Sussex and Dorset.

In the first quarter of 2012 Ridgeway announced it had bought BMW and Mini dealerships in Bournemouth, Salisbury and Odiham from Wood Group, increasing its workforce to more than 1,000. The purchase was seen as a fit in terms of brand and location. The Wood name has been retained.

Fiat has a strong proposition in the low-CO2 sector with a model range that produces the lowest emissions in the market.

This is driven by the Panda and the 500, iconic models that are seen as a core strength of the Fiat brand.

Fiat has also invested in engine technology that enhances its environmental performance with the TwinAir engine, a two-cylinder format that delivers strong performance despite weighing less and having lower fuel consumption.

Note: Manufacturers administer the franchised contracts for cars and LCVs in different ways. Broadly, for some the contract to sell cars and LCVs is managed through a separate dealer contract. For others one contract covers both vehicle types.

AMi seeks to acknowledge the difference and reflect it in the count of each dealer groups total franchised outlets (franchised businesses) and sites (locations).

Fiat treats car and LCV sales as coming under separate contracts –AMi counts each individually.

Audi UK’s strategy focuses on becoming the number one premium car brand, and number one for customer satisfaction among competing brands.

This approach is firmly rooted in building satisfaction and loyalty among existing customers, so when they replace their car they buy another Audi, as well as growing new markets.

After an initial dip at the start of the recession, sales have bounced back, helped by an ever-growing model range, which covers volume and niche markets, while the dealer network has remained stable.

In April 2012 Audi bought Ducati meaning it has a motorcycle brand to compete with its main rival BMW, which makes its own motorcycles and owns Husqvarna Motorcycles. Ducati has 38 dealers in the UK.

After charging through the sales charts for the past few years, Hyundai seems to be pausing for breath.

The question is whether the future will see resume its meteoric rise or whether sales will plateau or even fall back.

New models such as the i30, i40 and Veloster will provide critical sales collateral to maintaining growth, while an army of new Hyundai buyers will be key to driving dealership profit as their vehicles reach their service intervals.