Vertu Motors to expand MotorNation used car operation in Stockton

Vertu Motors has acquired a site for a new Bristol Street Motors MotorNation used car dealership business in Stockton, Teeside.

The AM100 PLC’s chief executive, Robert Forrester, announced late yesterday (December 21) that the site of the former Reg Vardy MG Rover dealership in the town had been acquired.

It will now be redeveloped to form the latest extension of the MotorNation used car retail operation.

Former Reg Vardy managing director Forrester indicated that he had fond memories of the new location in a post made via Twitter.

He said: “Today we completed the assignment on the old #regvardy #Stockton #Rover which we will reopen as a @BristolStMotors #MotorNation.

“I have fond memories of Rob Keenan and Tia Saddique doing 200 used cars a month at the top of the Group! We will breathe life back into the site!”

Back in March, Vertu’s Macklin Motors division completed the £1.5 million development of a new MotorNation used car and van showroom in Lookers’ former Glasgow Volkswagen Van Centre.

The PLC also has locations in Bristol and Derby.

The resurgence of the MotorNation division comes amid a buoyant used car market and more than seven years after Vertu pulled the plug on the car supermarket business.

Vertu announced it was pulling out of the used car supermarket business with the October 2014 closure of its Bristol Street MotorNation operation in Birmingham.

Atthat point the group had established used car supermarkets in Birmingham, Darlington, Doncaster and Widnes, but Forrester conceded at the time that the group had been unable to make the businesses profitable, admitting in an interview that “we are not very good at it”.

Last week Vertu Motors deployed some of its “M&A firepower” to complete the £9.2 million acquisition of two-site Toyota franchised car retailer Farmer & Carlisle.

The acquisition came just days after the group issued an updated profit before tax forecast of "no less than £70m" for its current financial year.