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Is There Room For The 'Little Guy'?

12-07-2016
Industry news

With a number of recent acquisitions made within the West Midlands within the Motor Industry, it started me thinking…is there enough room in this industry for the ‘little guy’?

Recently we have seen Jardine Motors buy out the majority of the Colliers Motor Group, to expand their presence in the Midlands. Colliers was a local group based in Erdington, Tamworth and Acocks Green. Whilst Jardine did not purchase the Acocks Green site, they bought the other four franchised dealerships.

Motorline has recently purchased the Westlands Motor Group. This move has made Motorline continue their significant growth and expand into Worcestershire. Westlands once again have been a local company bought out by a major player in the motor industry.

Bristol Street have continued their expansion in the prestige market having recently bought three Greenoaks Mercedes sites. Greenoaks were a company that had been operating there for 30 years.

With all of these and other recent acquisitions is there room in the motor trade for smaller companies? With the manufacturers, all pushing for increased market share and the processes and procedures put in place can the smaller companies still make it work and make themselves a profit? With significant investment required by manufacturers with facelifts to dealerships, staff to implement procedures and training required for all staff it can make it difficult. However, I do believe that all across the country there are examples of fantastic small and medium-sized companies delivering a fantastic customer experience and still remaining profitable.

Looking forward to tomorrows Motor Trader Awards and the shortlists there, I see a number of new and independent dealerships doing a fantastic job.

Independent Garage of the Year Award with a shortlist of six dealerships:

  • ACC UK (Farnborough)
  • Anderson Clark Motor Repairs (Inverness)
  • Car Care Tetbury
  • Collison Motoring Service (Waterlooville)
  • Motor Marque (Leeds)
  • Russell Automotive Centre (London)

New Dealership of the Year Award with the following nominees:

  • Harvey Cooper Cars (Ripon)
  • TH Boler Automotive (Oxfordshire)
  • T L Darby Volkswagen (Burton-on-Trent)

These are all great examples of companies that may not be part of the top 10 Motor Retailers but all of these are doing a fantastic job in the motor industry and making big impressions not only in the trade but with their customers as well.

I wish you all the best of luck tomorrow, as well as everyone else who is shortlisted for tomorrows awards, and in answer to my original question…yes, there is definitely still room in the motor industry for the ‘little guy’.