Brayleys has completed the COVID-19 lockdown acquisition of Glyn Hopkin's Romford Honda dealership for an undisclosed sum.

The Hertfordshire-based car retail group has established itself as one of the UK’s biggest Honda franchisees with the acquisition, which comes ten months after doubling its representation with the Japanese car brand with the acquisition of four locations from Thames Honda.

Brayleys now operates Honda dealerships Enfield, St Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Ruislip, Thames Ditton, Ewell and Leatherhead, plus a stand-alone aftersales facility in Grays, Essex. 

Group founder and managing director, Paul Brayley, said: “Over the past nine years Glyn Hopkin has developed the Romford Honda business into a successful retailer and our aim is to continue building on this foundation, whilst drawing on our own award-winning experience of representing Honda across the Southeast and Home Counties with class-leading facilities and customer service.

“As we come out of the pandemic lockdown with confidence, I am looking forward to welcoming the team at Romford Honda into the Brayleys family and further strengthening our partnership with the Honda brand.”

In additional to its eight Honda dealerships, Brayleys also represents Kia, Mazda, Renault and Dacia at 15 sales points throughout the Home Counties, Greater London and Thames Valley.

Having founded Brayleys 17 years ago with a single Honda outlet in St Albans, Brayley continues to run the business, having sold a majority shareholding to Dubai-based AW Rostamani Group at the end of 2018.

In the group’s acquisition statement, published today (June 3), Brayley said that the business would continue to explore further acquisition opportunities in partnership with AW Rostamani Group.

Khalid Al Rostamani, the chairman and chief executive of AW Rostamani Group said: “The acquisition of Romford Honda marks a further step forward in our strategy to build our automotive retail interests in the UK, which is a key market for AW Rostamani Group.

“In developing Brayleys with Paul and his team, we will continue to assess the right opportunities for future investment, which fit with our vision for growth.”

Prior to last August's acquisition of Thames Honda's four Honda dealerships, Brayleys 2018 financial results communicated a 6.1% increase in turnover to £119.2 million and profit before tax which had almost doubled to £1.22m.

Its latest acquisitions should see it begin an impressive climb up the AM100 rankings in 2020 and 2021.

A year ago Honda UK told AM that it had opted to remove its volume-driven targets as part of a sweeping strategic network restructure which could result in a 35.5% reduction in its UK dealer representation by 2022.

The OEM had already implemented a plan to reduce the number of its franchised sites by 10% when its then head of car, Phil Webb, and head of network development, Rebecca Stead, told AM in an exclusive interview that a new plan to deliver “sustainable profitability” for franchisees could see the number of dealerships slimmed further – from 155 to as few as 100 “in the next two to three years”.

Stead said: “This is about doing the right thing at the right time. No one knows what the future landscape looks like and what we didn’t want to do, and won’t do, is a mass cull.”

In February, Honda UK announced the appointment of Jean-Marc Streng as its new managing director ahead of the retirement of current MD David Hodgetts.

The shift saw Stead replace Webb as head of automobile as he made the move to HME as deputy general manager of HME Automobile Division.