Chief executive Jonathan Dunkley, chief financial officer Brian Scott and commercial director James Dunkley of the Sytner Group’s CarShop used car supermarket division have all departed the business, AM understands.

AM was told that James Dunkley and Scott, both of whom resumed their role within the leadership of the business when it was acquired by Sytner back in January 2017, had left the business last week, along with commercial director Jonathan Dunkley.

A source said “Jonathan Dunkley, James Dunkley (commercial director) and Brian Scott have all left Carshop with immediate effect”.

AM’s efforts to gain a response from Jonathan Dunkley or the Sytner Group have since failed.

However, notice of the termination of both Jonathan Dunkley and Scott’s appointment at CarShop on the Companies House website today (December 23) appears to have confirmed their move.

A spokesperson for Sytner told AM today that there was no one available for comment.

Dunkley and Scott were the respective CEO and CFO at CarShop when Sytner acquired the Northampton-based to ID50 retail group back in 2017, less than three months after AM featured the business in a profile feature for Independent Dealer magazine.

At the time the acquisition proved enough for Sytner to knock Pendragon off the AM100 rankings’ top spot for the first time in 19 years.

According to theAM100 table of the 100 biggest dealer groups by annual turnover at the time, Sytner generated almost £4.3 billion in 2015, £158 million behind Pendragon on £4.46bn.

CarShop said it generated £208.6m in 2015 and estimated it would make about £275m in 2017.

Following the acquisition of CarShop Dunkley and Scott were made the CEO and CFO of Sytner’s newly formed used car supermarket division, which included The Car People, following the acquisition of the Wakefield-based business in January 2018.

Sytner officially rebranded its car supermarket division to bring its sites operating as The Car People brought under the CarShop banner back in June.

Last month the business launched a new drive-in service centre concept when it opens the doors to its 10th CarShop site in Bristol.

Sixty-five new jobs were said to have been created with the opening of the new 600-car facility, located on a seven-acre site off Bolingbroke Way, Little Stoke, Bristol, when it opened its doors on November 30.

CarShop’s new location represents a £14 million investment and becomes Sytner’s the third store in the South West, alongside Swindon and Cardiff.

Sytner Group's new CarShop Bristol used car supermarket will be the first to offer drive-in car servicingThe car supermarket division now has sites in Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster, Manchester, Northampton, Norwich, Sheffield, Swindon, Wakefield and Warrington.