Arnold Clark expands in England

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.

The launch of the Vauxhall Ampera will be a key moment in Vauxhall's history over the next 12 months, as it has the potential to carve out a new market, without any significant competitors on the horizon.

The Ampera is an electric vehicle with range extender technology which can achieve a potential 175mpg.

Vauxhall is also concentrating on its core business in the run-up to the launch, particularly in generating aftersales business.

Vauxhall MasterFit recently signed up its 100,000th member to its discount parts, MoT and labour aftersales initiative which is aimed at getting older cars into the dealer network for service work.

The Vauxhall MasterFit Service Club is free and is open to all Vauxhalls over two years of age, regardless of where they were bought from. Vehicles between two and three years old receive a 15% discount; those four to seven years old qualify for a 20% discount; additionally, those eight years and older can benefit from the maximum discount of 25%.

In 2012 Vauxhall said it planned to reduce car sales, losing it a percentage point of market share, in order to boost product appeal and brand strength. Non-profitable short cycle business is to be reduced, said MD Duncan Aldred.

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).

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

A major marketing campaign and a rash of new models with a fresh design theme is driving awareness among consumers under the headline 'because life is full of opportunities'.

This hasn't yet fed through to a sales uplift for its model range but it's only a year since the brand moved away from GMUK, so there is a transitional phase to consider.

2012 promises to be a very exciting year for the brand with the arrival of the Volt, a potential halo model and game-changer in terms of consumer perception, although opportunities for substantial sales growth still lie with its core model range.