Acquisitions were the name of the game for Chorley Group in 2022. They were all Citroen dealerships and included BCC Cars’ Blackburn and Bolton sites and Vantage Motor Group’s facility in Blackpool.

While Citroen itself is undergoing a restructure, with the loss of 138 of its franchised sales points, Adam Turner, managing director of Lancashire-based Chorley Group, is confident that the acquisitions will prove to be a successful long-term move. So far, he said that all three businesses had bedded in well and the signs were positive for the future.

This builds on the group’s acquisition of 06 Ormskirk in 2021, with the group subsequently joining the Mitsubishi and Vauxhall franchises. It also joined the growing Isuzu UK retail network and moved into a new, standalone MG Motor UK dealership in Chorley in the last two years.

“We have capitalised on our agility to be able to grow our business and acquire other businesses,” Turner told AM contributor Alex Wright. “We acquired another three businesses last year, which aids our growth plan, but now the focus for this year is on multi-branding all of our facilities.

“The Stellantis brands have been more challenging than we would have hoped for in the early stages. But we are confident we have got a great customer base, people and products, and the right location, and we believe that going forward there will be plenty of opportunities to grow that part of the business.”

While Citroen has ditched its all-electric approach to sales of its Berlingo model due to popular demand for petrol and diesel propelled versions of the MPV, electric vehicles (EV) continue to be central to Chorley Group’s sales strategy. To this end, it has a dedicated group innovation manager, Miles Roberts, who is responsible for EV infrastructure, marketing and potential opportunities.

“EV has always been a huge focus for our business,” said Turner. “We have been so heavily ingrained in it from the early days when we started with Nissan in 1994 and continue to do so.”

In addition to Nissan, the group, which won the 2020 Automotive Management Bright Spark Award for its work in the EV space, sells Hyundai, Kia and MG EVs. Its brands are in the top 25% of all EV brands, while some are top performers.

Despite EV sales slowing for May as stock volumes dropped, Turner is bullish about the future. Reflecting this, Chorley Group, along with Charles Hurst and City west, was named as a new franchised retail partner of IM Group-imported GWM Ora EV brand, opening its new dealership in a facility adjacent to its MG Motor UK facility in March.

“We have been through an extremely challenging period over the last six months in terms of EV sales,” said Turner. “But we’re in a strong position structurally as regards EV and I have absolute confidence that it will come back.”  

Increased turnover, dip in profits

Chorley Group has reported mixed financial results over the last year. While turnover has increased from £190 million in 2021 to £240m in 2022, profits have decreased from £3.4m to just over £2m over the same period.

Turner puts the rise in turnover down to improved vehicle supply and the acquired businesses. And he expects turnover to be in the region of £300m for 2023 as sales volume increases, which could move the dealer group near to the middle of the AM100 rankings by turnover.

Turner said that the decrease in profit reflected tough trading conditions after a buoyant year in 2021. But he added that it was at a level the group was comfortable with, and had planned and budgeted for.

Amid a cost of living crisis, Turner said that the biggest challenges over the last 12 months have been trying to keep expenses down. In particular, he said that rising wages to support staff, energy prices and interest rates have had the most severe impact.

As well as acquisitions, another area that Chorley Group has focused heavily on over the last 12 months has been growing and investing in its staffbase. While maintaining its strong retention rates, the acquisitions increased its workforce from 280 people to around 430.

“Retention has always been one of our key strengths,” said Turner. “Added to that, staff numbers have jumped considerably, primarily as a result of the acquisitions.”

Following the acquisitions, Turner has taken the opportunity to reshuffle the business. Pauline Turner, aftersales director, has retired, while Hilary Nicol, finance director, is due to retire next month (July). Gillian Howells, has stepped up from HR manager to become head of people, while Martin Butler, from BCC, has been appointed head of projects and compliance and Will How, also from BCC, is the new head of finance. The group also continues to invest in and build out its digital capabilities.

“We wanted to create a strong, centralised structure so we can continue to plug these new acquisitions into the business,” said Turner. “So far, they have been instrumental in helping us to achieve the growth we want.”

Looking forward, Turner said that, while the group is always on the lookout for opportunities, there are no immediate future acquisition plans. Rather, he said that it was focused on multi-branding, with a potential eight additional franchises joining the business over the next 12 to 18 months.

“That’s to help us maximise our cost base as much as possible and drive more traffic into the dealership,” said Turner.

“Economies of scale are so important to us because we need multiples of every brand and we need to maximise the rooftops, so every single building needs to have as many brands as possible within it.”