Vertu Motors makes £12.5m acquisition of AM100 car dealer
Vertu Motors has announced it is expecting to pay £12.5 million for an AM100 car dealer group almost doubling its partnership with Toyota.
After 25 years of trading Burrows Motor Group has been bought by Vertu Motors bringing the end to the Burrows brand on car dealerships. All the acquired sites will be rebranded Vertu.
The deal, estimated at £12.5m subject to finalisation of Burrows accounts, also has Vertu take on Burrows indebtedness of £10.5m of property mortgage funding plus stocking loans.
Steve Burrows founded Burrows Motor Group in 1999 in his hometown of Rotherham and began expanding into Barnsley the same year and Doncaster four years later.
After 12 years exclusively partnering Toyota, the group began to multi-franchise in 2013, starting with Kia and then Mazda.
Burrows, which was listed at 94 in last year’s AM100 rankings has five Toyota dealerships in total as well as two Mazda showrooms and one Kia dealership. They also have a used car sites across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield, York and Worksop.
The dealer group employs approximately 350 people and had annual sales of £168.9m in 2023. According to Companies House records they had an operating profit of £1.4m and a pre-tax profit of £0.1m. The group endured a tough 2023 with rising interest costs and technician salaries at the same time as reduced margins and increasing used car depreciation.
Vertu Motors chief executive, Robert Forrester said: “We have long admired the Burrows business and are delighted to have completed this acquisition creating further scale for the group with key manufacturer partners.
“The acquisition of Burrows gives us considerable scale in our partnership with Toyota and strengthens the Vertu brand in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
“This is in line with our strategy to actively pursue value accretive growth opportunities to enhance our portfolio, applying strict investment return metrics as well as returning cash to shareholders.”
Burrows, aged 73, has been an influential retailer for Toyota and was an active member of its franchise board.
As a family-run business, Burrows decided in 2022 his dealerships would close on Sundays. This was to make sure staff could relax and enjoy family time.