Cambria Automobiles has officially opened the doors to its new McLaren Automotive supercar showroom in Hatfield less than a week after opening the doors to its nearby Aston Martin dealership.

The AM100 group got its new McLaren franchise up and running with a speedy five-day build process to create a temporary home in February last year but this week celebrated the completion of its project to deliver the permanent facility on Gypsy Moth Avenue, on the Hatfield Business Park.

A launch event featured a line-up of historic McLarens, including first 12C to leave McLaren Automotive’s Woking production line, a McLaren P1TM, 675LT Spider, McLaren Senna and MP4/4 Formula 1 car, plus MSO’s ‘Coriolis’ 720S Spider firs seen at the Geneva Motor Show 2019.

Commenting on the opening of the new 378 square metre showroom, which will be operated as part of the Grange Motors business, Cambria chief executive Mark Lavery said: “Grange has a long and established history in the luxury automotive space.

“The development of our new facility in Hatfield has allowed us to create a bespoke environment that caters to the needs of our guests.

“The modern but relaxed surroundings will ensure that McLaren Hatfield is a destination that both entertains and informs our customers.”

David Gilbert, managing director Europe, McLaren Automotive, said: “Having welcomed Grange Motors to the McLaren family last year, I am delighted to be at the opening of their stunning new facility.

“We’re confident that McLaren Hatfield will be the retailer of choice for both prospective and existing supercar owners north of the capital.”

Just last week AM reported on Cambria’s opening of its new Grange Motors Aston Martin franchise in Hatfield.

The business was relocated from a temporary showroom at Welwyn and is the first dealership in the UK to showcase the British sports car brand’s brand-new corporate identity.

The new purpose-built facility, on Mosquito Way, Hatfield Business Park, offers 1,164 square metres of floor space and can accommodate 18 Aston Martin sports cars.

The opening of Cambria’s new dealership facilities comes as part of a luxury refranchising plan which showed signs of reaping rewards in a set of H1 financial results which detailed a 4.5% increase in turnover and 14.6% rise in underlying profit before tax last week.

New car sales declined by 23.4% to 3,432 (H1 2018: 4,478) and used car sales by 8.8% to 6,235 (H1 2018: 6,833) during the period to February 28, but the average profit per unit sold increased by 30.6% and 7.4%, respectively, to mitigate the effects of the contracting market.

Overall turnover increased to £308.3 million (H1 2018: £295.1m) and underlying profit before tax to £5.5 million (H1 2018: £4.8m), partially as the result of the group’s withdrawal from certain unprofitable franchises and opening of new retail sites with the likes of Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini and McLaren.

Franchise developments at Cambria during the reported period included the opening of the group’s second Lamborghini dealership, the occupation of the Hatfield Jaguar Land Rover Arch-Concept dealership and the £2.76 million disposal of a Royal Wootton Bassett freehold site following relocation of Jaguar Land Rover to Swindon in the previous financial year.

Following the end of the period, Cambria has also opened a new Suzuki dealership in Maidstone, acquired land in Brentwood for development of dealership facilities, opened a Citroen dealership in Oldham and moved into the recently-completed Hatfield Aston Martin and McLaren dealerships.