Pendragon and Volvo’s joint decision to close six dealer-ships and two authorised repairers leaves the retailer with six Volvo outlets.

Volvo is contacting customers who have ordered cars to arrange delivery.

The carmaker is considering its options for the vacant areas at Plymouth, Reading, Bury, Chesterfield, Preston and Stockport. Approved repairer sites were Burton-on-Trent and Hainault.
A Volvo spokeswoman said:

“We are reviewing the representation in the areas that have been identified by these closures and we may decide to replace some, but we are not in a position to give any further detail.”

Pendragon is left with Volvo dealerships in Birmingham, Cardiff, Derby, Nottingham, Stafford and Stoke. Further closures are not expected. 

It leaves Volvo with 110 dealerships, likely to drop to 105 in the next year.Despite the closures, Volvo is still confident of hitting its target of 35,000 new car registrations this year. 

Kevin Meeks, Volvo network and business development manager, said sales were up 13.45% to the end of September compared to the same period last year.

“Dealer profitability is improving year on year,” he said. “We want dealers to be doing real business for customers. We are not into registration incentives – dealers’ orders should be based upon the cars they are selling.”

Meeks said dealers were being “more responsive” to changes in the market and had improved sales of the C30, V50 and S40 models.

“The R design variations for all three models are now a strong seller,” he added.

“I’m confident about the end of this year because we have cars like the S40 and V50. These are all sub-120g/km, so in terms of the environmental effects this has helped boost sales.”

Meeks added: “Overall I think we have about the right network coverage. I don’t see it changing by more than a few per cent.”
Pendragon has also sold its Milton Keynes BMW/Mini site to Wayside – the third of four sites it has been told by BMW to sell or close.

It gives Wayside its first BMW/Mini outlet, which will be run from the existing showroom for now.