Jardine Motors Group has bought another Toyota dealership, its ninth representing the Japanese brand.

This latest acquisition involves a standalone Toyota dealership in St Ives, Cambridgeshire from Thurlow Nunn, a major Vauxhall retailer.

The deal gives Jardine a total of nine Toyota and three Lexus sites across three contiguous territories in Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire and in the north east.

In line with other recent acquisitions the business will be rebranded Lancaster, one of Jardine's trading brands.

Jon Banner, Toyota's head of network development, said: “We are extremely pleased to be in partnership with Jardine Motors Group.

"Our growth strategy is a fundamental part of our business and we must have partners like JMG who continually operate to a very high standard across both sales and aftersales, always looking to continually improve their business, have a high standard of employees and fully understand complete customer satisfaction."

Jardine's Sunderland Toyota dealership, Minories Wearside, has won its Ichiban annual European customer satisfaction award an unprecedented four times.

Neil Roscoe, Jardine's brand director for Toyota and Lexus, said: "Our enhanced group buying power means that we are able to deliver fantastic sales and aftersales offers to our customers along with industry leading levels of customer service.

"We have a very exciting future ahead of us for this brand and certainly won’t be resting on our laurels."

Major investments are planned this year by Jardine, including relocating both the Chelmsford and Colchester Toyota dealerships to brand new facilities.