Marshall Motor Group Buys 8 Jardine VW Group Dealerships

Marshall Motor Group has acquired six Volkswagen franchise dealerships, one VW commercial vehicle and one Skoda franchise from Jardine Motor Group.  The sites are all north of London, and located at Milton Keynes, St Albans, Loughton, Harlow, Aylesbury and Letchworth.

The purchase marks yet another significant change for the VW network this year, following new franchise agreements being agreed last year.

The purchase makes Marshall the largest retail partner with VW Group, holding 53 franchises. It also makes Marshall the second largest group VW car franchise holder with 15 sites, behind Inchcape with 16 VW car sites.

The Jardine sites purchase will see 400 staff move over to Marshall Motor Group.

The VW dealerships aren’t expected to be profitable until 2022, according to Marshall chief executive Daksh Gupta.

“While the acquired Businesses are currently loss making, we are confident in their future potential. The businesses are in excellent locations that are contiguous to our existing Volkswagen and Skoda franchises. Each site is fully compliant with the latest brand requirements.”

A spokesman for Marshall added: “The Volkswagen franchise in Aylesbury shares a site with an Audi Approved Used business which is being retained by Jardine. Completion of Aylesbury Volkswagen will be deferred pending completion of the legal process to sub-divide the site. It is expected that this process and the transfer of the Aylesbury Volkswagen business will be completed in 2020.

Marshall is also expected to complete the purchase of Derby Volvo from Vertu, before Christmas.

Assuming the Derby Volvo acquisition is completed in 2019, this will mean Marshall Motors has added 20 sites (19 franchises and one bodyshop) this year including the purchase of two Honda dealerships from Jardine in September and several Skoda businesses from Progress in March.