Eastern Western gears up for sales volume increase

Eastern Western Motor Group is gearing up to grow its car sales volume with an investment into a huge workshop and PDI centre.

It has just secured planning permission to convert a former paint production building in Dunfermline into a vehicle preparation factory.

The 33,000sq ft property was previously occupied since 2000 by the UK's oldest paint manufacturing firm, Craig & Rose, but it closed the facility in 2024 amid plans to move production to France.

The building is situated to the rear of Eastern Western's existing Toyota, Nissan and Honda dealerships at Halbeath, and the PDI centre will have easy access to the M90 motorway for vehicle movements.

Eastern Holdings group managing director Keith Duncan said it is a "huge space, had to be purchased" and added that the PDI centre would be "strategically important given what's coming".

The AM100 group has expanded significantly in Scotland in the last 10 years, doubling its annual turnover from the £464 million revenues it recorded in 2014.

In 2017 it took over Grassicks BMW and Mini at Perth and Pheonix Honda at Sterling, then in 2018 it acquired Barnett Motor Group, adding Volkswagen and Mazda businesses.

That was followed by its acquisition of Alex F Noble Nissan at Straiton.

In 2022 it opened a VW Commercial Vehicles dealership at Newbridge, Edinburgh, and a new Mercedes-Benz dealership at Fife, and a year later it gained the Toyota franchises for Falkirk, Stirling, Perth and Dundee.