Burrows Motor Company has completed its withdrawal from the Hyundai franchise with the sale of its Doncaster franchise to the Read Motor Group for an undisclosed sum.

The deal comes just two months after Stoneacre Motor Group acquired the Doncaster-based group’s Hyundai and Fiat franchises on Penistone Road, Sheffield.

Steve Burrows, managing director of Burrows Motor Company said that the changes had completed the planned withdrawal from the Fiat and Hyundai franchises and would allow the group to focus on its Toyota, Mazda and Kia franchises.

“This was all part of the plan laid out in December and it’s great to get that done and look ahead to a period in which, we feel, we can achieve greater profitability,” Burrows told AM.

Burrows sold the freehold on the Doncaster Hyundai site on Middle Bank, Doncaster Carr Industrial Estate, as part of the sale, which was completed last week.

“The sale will allow us to grow further with our core brands and we are poised to make further acquisitions to that end”, said Burrows.

AM understands that Burrows is set to complete the acquisition of LS Copcutt & Son Toyota, Worksop, complete with the freehold on the solus retail operation’s Retford Road site, next week.

Mike Read, managing director of Read Motor Group has now gorwn his business from a solus Hyundai site in Grimsby, in 2010, to a retail operation with six Hyundai sites (Boston, Doncaster, Grimsby, Kings Lynn, Lincoln and Worksop) and Suzuki franchise in Grimsby. 

The Doncaster acquisition follows the group acquisition of Vertu's Volkswagen franchise in Boston in January which saw the Hyundai brand installed in its place, removing the German brand from the territory.

Read said: "We have had a period of rapid growth and we remain a progressive business, but we're delighted to grow out market area into Doncaster - an area which borders our existing territories - and we'll now enter a period of consolidation.

"It was great to do business with Steve Burrows in a move that progresses his plans and we'll be keeping his existing Doncaster team, which we've been very impressed by, in place."

Read said that the Hyundai busienss would see Read Motor Group's annual turnover grow to "circa £50 million".

Burrows said that the sale of the Hyundai franchise in Doncaster “made sense” as the business faced costly investment in the Korean brand’s new corporate identity if it remained part of the business.

He said: “To meet the new standards would have meant a very large investment. The site isn’t big enough to meet Hyundai’s new criteria.

“It made sense for Mike Read to acquire the business because that could be avoided if it continued to be run as a satellite site to his existing market area.”