12 May 2019

• RENAULT IN TALKS WITH BIG FOUR SUPERMARKETS
• CAR RETAILERS RICHER THAN THE QUEEN
•  JOHN GROSE TO HOLD RECRUITMENT EVENT
• PERRYS LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE
• TATA DENIES JLR SALE TO PSA REPORTS
• VW CONFIDENT IN SOFTWARE SECURITY FOR NEXT GEN GOLF
• STOCKWATCH – BCA continues slide, Caffyns up
• LAUNCH DIARY – Mercedes-Benz EQC EV, Volkswagen ID.3
• COMING UP – Jobs market, AGMs for Marshall Motor Holdings, Inchcape
• MONEY MATTERS – Firms turn to temp staff as Brexit drags on
• OUR BLOG – The future: are you in or out?

Renault in talks with Big Four supermarkets

A property consultancy working with Renault to find 24 sites suitable for micro-dealerships says it is in talks with supermarkets including Aldi, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco.

Renault is looking for plots of up to 0.5 acres near high-footfall centres such as retail or business parks where it can build satellite dealerships to operate test drives, display 10 to 20 used cars and provide rapid service facilities.

John Shuttleworth, of the Automotive Property Consultancy, said: “We are in dialogue with the Big Four supermarkets who have well placed sites as well as retail park owners and some of the big solus sites like B&Q or Matalan.”

Called Renault Live, the design has already been tested in France and a Renault spokesman said the lower land cost and capital overheads can give an easier ROI.

Car retailers richer than the Queen

Four car retailers are wealthier than the Queen according to the Sunday Times annual Rich List with the Clark family (Arnold Clark) and Lord Edmiston (IM Group) among the UK’s 151 billionaires and placed 129th and 141st respectively in the overall rankings.

Both Geoffrey Warren (Cargiant) on £500 million and Jack Tordoff and family, (JCT 600) on £400m have more than the Queen who is listed at 356th with a personal wealth of £370m.

Others in the top 1,000 include Keith Bradshaw (Listers) with £219m and who also has interests in care homes, Tony Bramall and family on £196m, Sir Peter Vardy with £187m, Guy Harwood with £150m, Terry Lister £129m, David and Betty Carr (Helston Garages) on £124m and David Shelton (Motorpoint) with £120m.

John Grose to hold recruitment event

Multi-franchise retailer John Grose is holding a recruitment evening later this month to fill vacancies throughout the business. It has 16 openings in sales, the workshops, IT, marketing, accounts, administration and customer service and for both experienced and trainee level applicants.

The event will be staged on Wednesday 22 May at its new John Grose Ford dealership on Ransomes Europark in Ipswich.

The family owned group has Ford, Kia and PSA franchises across six sites across East Anglia.

Perrys launches new website

Perrys Motor Group has launched a new website which it says should help increase the number of conversions from visits to sales, have better SEO, faster pages, clearer navigation for users and promote the company brand across all its departments.

Helen Thomas, marketing director, said: “This is a refreshed site which will drive more traffic to us through natural growth and searches, be faster and easier for visitors to use so customers have a better journey and it will work better at promoting the Perrys brand.”

WORLD NEWS

Tata denies JLR sale to PSA reports

Tata Motors has denied that it could sell JLR to PSA after the Press Association said the two are exploring cost-saving opportunities from a tie-up and that it has seen a ‘post-sale integration’ document outlining specific areas.

https://bit.ly/2DUQNnx

VW confident in software security for next gen Golf

VW is confident its hi-tech new Golf will launch next February and engineers can overcome delays in its complex digital features including over the air (OTA) software updates. With OTA and online connectivity the Golf has ten times more code than a smartphone and VW is working to guard against it being hacked.

https://bit.ly/2GEqH9T

STOCKWATCH

Closing prices at 10 May and weekly movement

BCA continues slide, Caffyns up

BCA 188.5p (-8.1p)

Cambria 65.0p (+5.0p)

Caffyns 410.0p (+15.0p)

Inchcape 596.5p (-16.5p)

Lookers 87.1p (-3.6p)

Marshall Motor Holdings 166.5p (n/c)

Motorpoint 185.0p (+2.2p)

Pendragon 23.3p (-0.7p)

Vertu 39.0p (+6.1p)

LAUNCH DIARY

Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 4MATIC Sport. Full EV, deliveries from July. From £65,640

Volkswagen ID.3. EV available for pre-order with an £750 deposit. 200 to 340 miles range. Deliveries from mid-2020. Prices tbc.

COMING UP

Tuesday: Jobs market statistics on employment, average earnings and vacancies.

May

21: Marshall Motor Holdings’ AGM

21: CBI industrial trends survey

22: UK retail sales, Consumer Price Index

23: Inchcape AGM

MONEY MATTERS

Firms turn to temp staff as Brexit drags on

Businesses are hiring more temporary workers than full-time staff as companies await a final decision on Brexit.

The latest UK Report on Jobs by KPMG and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation showed the number of permanent jobs dropped slightly last month but openings for short-term staff rose sharply.

Click here to read OUR BLOG – The future: are you in or out?

John Swift

Editor

Auto Retail Agenda

Tags: Automotive Property Consultancy, CDK, John Grose, Perrys, Renault