south with acquisition
Scotland-based dealer group Arnold Clark has increased its presence
in the English motor retail market with the acquisition of
Patterson Motor Group, for an unnamed sum.
Patterson has annual turnover of £250m and three outlets in the
north-east of England. No redundancies among Patterson’s 370-strong
staff are anticipated.
Sir Arnold Clark, chairman and founder of the Scottish chain said:
“We are looking forward to using the vast amount of experience of
both businesses to create a formidable player in the north-east car
market.”
INCHCAPE
Sale of components businesses and retail
outlet

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By GlobalDataMotor group Inchcape has sold Wilcomatic Limited and J&S
Components Limited, along with a VW retail centre in Wrexham, for a
combined total of £6.8m.
The components businesses were formerly part of European
Motor Holdings (EMH), as was the Wrexham outlet. Wilcomatic and
J&S Components were sold “in accordance with [Inchcape’s]
stated strategy to dispose of certain non-core UK assets”, while
the VW retail centre was sold to fulfil an undertaking Inchcape
made to the Office of Fair Trading at the time of the EMH
acquisition.
ACF CAR FINANCE
Scottish branch opening
ACF Car Finance has opened a branch in Livingston, the company’s
ninth office. Its first sale came just ten minutes after the lease
was signed on the property, with a customer buying a Fiesta and
part-exchanging it for a Mondeo.
All staff in the new Livingston branch have undergone
intensive training in car and bike finance, ACF said.
HR OWEN
Mystery bidder backs off
HR Owen has announced that preliminary discussions with a
potential bidder have come to nothing, after the unnamed interested
party decided it “no longer has a strategic interest in making an
offer for [HR Owen]”, the retail chain announced.
Chief executive of HR Owen, Nicholas Lancaster said: “Whilst
this unsolicited approach was an encouraging endorsement of our
strategy to focus on our luxury and specialist dealerships, as a
board, we are unanimous in our belief that HR Owen continues to
have an excellent future and we remain confident that we will, over
the coming years, deliver significant shareholder value.”
BCA
LiveOnline extended to LCVs
Auction house BCA has extended its LiveOnline auction service to
light commercial vehicles.
LiveOnline allows bidders who are not physically present in
the auction room to bid via the internet. Initially the LiveOnline
LCV sales will take place at BCA’s Blackbushe site before they are
rolled out to all of the auctioneer’s salesrooms.
To aid buyer confidence, LCVs are graded on six levels based
on how much money will be needed to refurbish them, with Grade 1
needing no money spent and Grade 6 requiring £1,000 or more.
COFFIN MEW LLP
Website explaining PPI launched by law firm
The law firm Coffin Mew LLP has launched a website bringing
together resources and information on legislation and compliance
within the payment protection insurance (PPI) area.
The website, http://www.ppiknowledge.co.uk/,
operates on a subscription basis and is aimed at companies whose
staff need to keep abreast of developments in PPI regulation, as
well as those who need access to a range of information pertaining
to the product.
APAK
Aston Martin selects new stock funding
system
APAK Group’s wholesale finance system, WFS, has been selected by
Aston Martin for use throughout its dealer network. The scheme
replaces a previous manual processing system with APAK’s fully
automated and streamlined stock funding application.
Efficiency savings from the WFS implementation will allow Aston
Martin to extend its existing wholesale finance programme to North
American dealers where access to the web-based facility will be
available later in 2007.
This is part of a staged roll-out plan that will see APAK’s
software implemented globally by Aston Martin’s 126 dealers in some
27 countries by the end of 2007.