Pentagon Motor Group and Charles Hurst Group are moving Vauxhall dealerships as they seek to maximize their use to accommodate the PSA-owned car brand.
The Pentagon has completed the closure of its long-standing facility in Sheffield, on Savile Street, Sheffield, and has moved the Griffin badge franchise to a new showroom that stores a construction site with its vast Kia franchise on the two-lane Sheffield Parkway.
Charles Hurst’s Lookers department has put up for sale its Belfast Vauxhall showroom on Boucher Road for a new location.
The Belfast Telegraph reported that Charles Hurst’s planned sale of its 1.2-acre, 13,000-square-foot showroom in 27 Boucher Road is not connected to PSA Group plans to particularly shrink Vauxhall’s franchise network.
A spokesman told the paper that the sale would see Vauxhall move to another site of the same length in the shopping complex, adding, “The resolution to sell the site is part of an ongoing review of our entire genuine goods portfolio that is designed to optimize the area so that we can get the most productive effects for our distributors and customers.”
The new Vauxhall eight-car exhibition hall in Sheffield, which will not be completely completed until next month, created from a workshop at its existing Kia and Vauxhall Vans facilities and all existing staff have already been transferred to space.
Since the changes, a new after-sales facility has been created for Kia and Vauxhall.
David Lewis, CEO of Pentagon Motor Group, said: “We are very pleased to have achieved it.
“This is a new progression that involves an investment of more than a million pounds, but what’s really great is that, in addition to a much larger showroom, it also offers consumers a much less difficult location than the old downtown site, with all our amenities in one position and a giant on-site parking lot.
“It will also be much greater for us in terms of accessibility and terms and conditions.
“We have been implementing a transparent strategy for a while on a small number of major brands across the Group, which transparently indicates our willingness and ability to achieve this.
In conjunction with Vauxhall’s new facilities, operations on the Pentagon Group site come with the Kia Showroom, service departments and portions, a Van mall and insurance-rated arming shops.
The Pentagon has been the Sheffield Kia franchise since it took over Lookers in June 2017.
Rob Schofield, Director of the Vauxhall and Kia logo at the Pentagon Group, said: “While the Vauxhall showroom is not completely completed until the end of August, consumers are already our new Vauxhall service and spare portion services on the Parkway Avenue site, and we have a variety of new and used Vauxhall cars on the external display for consumers to navigate.”
Pentagon Motor Group now operates about 49 franchised outlets for primary brands, at 26 locations in the East Midlands and North.
Pentagon severed its ties with the FCA Group with the closure of its dual-brand Alfa Romeo and Jeep dealership in Doncaster last month.
Closing an era of network expansion for the AM100 operator.
In January last year it acquired three TrustFord dealerships (Warrington, St Helens and Runcorn) before acquiring Loughborough’s Archie Moss Vauxhall dealership in August.
November brought the acquisition of Sytner’s Seat dealership in Huddersfield, before the group completed the addition of Peugeot to its Barnsley (in its former Fiat showroom) and Lincoln (formerly Citroen) sites in February this year.
In this issue
Get your policies in place ahead of a second COVID wave
It’s under retailers wish to concentrate on cash generation, but they should still consider worst-case scenarios / P6
When a new car registrations dip feels like a small recovery
The numbers were reduced by almost a third, but until the last months, this is progress / P12
Will governments practice more on automakers?
‘A number of manufacturers have appealed for government support and this is justified’ / P18
Volkswagen
VW’s new boss is not separate from the coVID-19 effect, but is convinced that the right combination of models will help him, as well as his franchise retailers, recover/P20
Responsible Retail
Industry suppliers explain how they help distributors adapt to new trade standards/P30
An award-winning news reporter, Tom is Bauer Media’s AM brand news and report editor. Its role forces you to stay on top of all industry and business news to cover the franchised automotive retail and automotive industry in general, while helping manage magazine production and AM events.
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