Glenvarigill, once a leading Scottish dealer group, has been renamed Manor Oak Holdings after five years of downsizing and months of speculation about its future.

Kevin Lamb, who was Glenvarigill’s finance director, has teamed up with fellow executive Dean Fulton to lead the company.

Lamb and Fulton have taken a majority stake and Bank of Scotland Corporate – which is understood to have in effect owned Glenvarigill for some time – retains a minority stake.

Bank of Scotland declined to give further details and Lamb did not respond to AM’s request for clarification of his ambitions for the new business.

Manor Oak has taken control of Peugeot dealerships in Aberdeen and Dundee, and Honda sites in Aberdeen (the manufacturer owns the freehold of this site) and Perth.

According to one source, the sale was completed two months ago but staff have still not been informed. A dealership employee said: “There is no head office in Edinburgh any more and we’re changing the Glenvarigill name. We haven’t been told any more.”

A Honda UK spokesman said: “There is a new management structure but it’s business as usual at our dealerships.”

Glenvarigill, based in Edinburgh, was once one of Scotland’s leading motor retail groups. It was founded in 1966 and used to be part of the Drambuie whisky distiller group.

In 2002, there was a management buyout of the motor retail business, then ranked number 48 in the AM100 with a turnover of £137m and 21 outlets.

Over the next few years the group shrank, with the sale or closure of dealerships representing Renault, Chrysler Jeep, Seat, Porsche, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati and TVR.

Speculation about a second MBO in four years began last autumn when Glenvarigill sold its Audi businesses in Stirling and Edinburgh to Lomond Motors, operator of Glasgow Audi dealership.