Marshall Motor Holdings has completed the acquisition of Jardine Motor Group’s Volkswagen dealership in Aylesbury.
The deal forms part of Marshall’s December 2019 acquisition of eight VW locations from Jardine and cements the AM100 2019’s seventh-placed retail group as the UK’s largest Volkswagen Group retailer.
Marshall’s December acquisitions included Jardine’s Harlow, Letchworth, Loughton, Milton Keynes and St Albans VW sites, together with a Volkswagen commercial vehicle franchise and body shop in Loughton and a Skoda passenger car franchise in Milton Keynes.
The Aylesbury site’s completion was delayed due to property aspects of the asset and the COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown period.
The group said in a statement issued to AM this afternoon (July 10) that it would retain all 38 colleagues to Marshall Motor Group effective immediately.
Marshall now has 15 passenger VW car retailers and six commercial vehicle dealers, alongside 12 Skoda dealerships, 10 Audi dealerships, three Seat dealerships and six VW Trade Parts Specialist (TPS) centres.
Daksh Gupta, the chief executive of Marshall Motor Holdings, said: “This acquisition further strengthens our already excellent relationship with Volkswagen UK.
“Aylesbury is contiguous to our existing businesses and in a market we know very well.
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome the team at Volkswagen Aylesbury into the Marshall family”.
Marshall Motor Group’s portfolio now includes 117 retail sites across 23 manufacturer partners and 28 counties.
Earlier this week AM reported on Jardine Motors Group’s confirmation that it had opened consultation over redundancies as part of a restructure prompted by COVID-19.
The process began on July 6 as part of sweeping changes which, AM understands, will include the closure of the group’s Milton Keynes headquarters and a satellite facility in Colchester.
A spokesman for the AM100 2019’s eighth-placed retail group by turnover would not confirm reports that the associated job cuts could total more than 500.
But, Neil Williamson, said: “Following on from the well documented impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the automotive industry and UK business, we have made the difficult decision to review the structure of our operations and entered into a period of consultation with our teams across the group.
“While these are challenging times, our single goal is to ensure we safeguard as many jobs as we can and as a result ensure the longevity of the business.”
