Paul Stapylton steps up to head Glyn Hopkin operations

Glyn Hopkin has promoted group operations director Paul Stapylton to be its new chief operating officer only three months after joining the business.

Stapylton joined in February from Marshall Motor Group where he had been franchise director after Marshall acquired his former employer Motorline in October 2021.

Stapylton had been a director at Motorline for over 15 years, working closely with brands like Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Lexus, Volkswagen and Skoda.

Last September Automotive Management reported that the COO role at the AM100 dealer group was being filled by Tim Murphy, also a former director at Marshall and Motorline.

Murphy had previously served as Audi and JLR franchise director at Marshall and as group operations director and executive board member for the Motorline Group.

Automotive Management has asked Glyn Hopkin to clarify what role Murphy now has in the business.

Privately-owned dealer group Glyn Hopkin, which is ranked 35 in the AM100 currently, operates 35 dealerships across London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Suffolk. These include 13 Nissan and 10 MG showrooms, along with Kia, Renault, Dacia, Alpine, and Suzuki branches.

In mid-2024 the business, majority owned by founder Glyn Hopkin, was sold to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

An EOT allows company owners to sell part or all of their business, free of capital gains tax, to their employees, without requiring any changes to the management structure, as the buyer is typically a trustee acting in the interest of all staff.

This business structure allows employees to collectively have a controlling interest in the business although they do not take direct ownership of any shares as they are beneficiaries of the trust. Once a company is owned by an EOT, it can pay annual bonuses to its employees free of income tax.

Two main conditions enable the tax breaks - the trust must hold more than 50% of the shares in the company, and if employees receive any benefit from the trust they must all be included and on the same terms.