Swansway Group has acquired Hartwell Citroen and Fiat in Chester for an undisclosed sum.

Swansway already operates the Peugeot franchise in the city, on Sealand road, and was approached by the PSA Group with a view to running the Citroen franchise, which operates on a dual site with Fiat.

Peter Smyth, a director of the Swansway Group (pictured left), said: “We were approached by PSA regarding the site in Chester; they had been impressed by the performance of our Swansway Peugeot, Chester centre, which has become a top performer for the brand, despite starting up only three years ago with no database.

“We could immediately see the synergy of operating these brands in harmony, in the same city, with their shared processes and procedures and the proximity of the existing site to our own Peugeot centre; the franchise was operated in tandem with Fiat who very kindly agreed to our acquisition.”

Swansway has plans in place to relocate the dual franchise site to a location closer to their Peugeot centre which will bring further economies of operation.

Andrew Wakelin, dealer principal of Swansway Peugeot, Chester, will take on the role of operations director, across the sites.

He said: “I am relishing this new challenge. Having got the Peugeot centre performing so well, it’s great to now have another project to get my teeth into; I’ve found the Peugeot brand great to work with and I look forward to continuing the great relationship we’ve already forged with Julianne Tovey at Citroen and Simon Robinson at Fiat.”

This latest acquisition brings the number of brands under the Swansway umbrella to nine and increases its network of dealership to 17, from Preston down to Birmingham.