Waylands Automotive has acquired Johnsons Cars’ Volvo Oxford car dealership to extend it operations to four sites – all with the Swedish premium brand.

Waylands completed the acquisition of the Botley Road franchised site on October 5 and is set to realise plans to move the facility to a new 17-car showroom just a short distance away, on Cumnor Hill, Botley.

The group’s chief executive, John O’Hanlon, said: “Everyone at Waylands is delighted to have acquired our fourth Volvo retailer, Waylands Volvo Oxford, and we are excited to relocate to the brand new site on Cumnor Hill.

“This period of growth has been exciting but crucial to achieving our key short-term goal of delivering scale to our business.  With this scale, we are able to invest in the talent that will drive Waylands to the next level.”

Established by O’Hanlon only last November and initially established the new group with Volvo Cars Reading, before acquiring Fawcett’s Volvo Newbury and Waylands Volvo Swindon in May and August.

The acquisition of Volvo Cars Oxford has further cemented the group’s partnership with the Volvo brand, as Waylands now represents Volvo in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.

Former Ridgeway chief executive O’Hanlon said in a statement that the business’s acquisition operations might now settle as he focuses on a requirement to “consolidate this growth into our business”. 

He added: “We will work hard on achieving a consistent Waylands culture throughout the group.  It is this culture that will deliver on our promises of excellent customer and employee satisfaction and a strength of all our performance KPIs.

“With the December relocation of Reading to our new site close to the M4, featuring the stunning new Volvo Retail Environment concept, we have a busy few months through to the end of the year.”