Our History

The story so far…

In December 2006 the Group was admitted to Aim following an oversubscribed equity raise of £25m (£23.6 million after expenses).
On 27th February 2007 the Group announced that it had exchanged contracts to purchase the entire share capital of Bristol Street Group Limited for estimated consideration of £31 million cash and £9m of shares to be placed with the vendor. In addition, debt estimated at £29m was to be assumed.
On 27th March 2007 the Group completed the acquisition of Bristol Street and concluded a further equity placing of £26m (£22.6m after finance and acquisition expenses).
On 2nd May 2007 the Group completed the acquisition of Blake Holdings Limited for estimated consideration of £4.9 million. The Blakes operations include a Vauxhall dealership in Chesterfield, a Vauxhall service centre in Matlock and Peugeot dealerships located in Chesterfield and Worksop.
On 29th June 2007 the Group acquired four Honda car dealerships and one Honda Motorcycle dealership in the East Midlands, through the purchase of the entire share capital of Grantham Motors Company Limited for a cash consideration of £4.6m. The dealerships required are located in Grantham, Lincoln, Boston, Retford.
On 29th June 2007 the Group acquired the trade and assets a Ford dealership in Morpeth, Northumberland from the Jennings Group for cash consideration of £2.6m.
In March 2008 and 2009 respectively the group opened new greenfield site used car outlets in Doncaster and Darlington under the Bristol Street Motor Nation brand.
In June 2009 the group completed a £30M placing, net of expenses, in order to fund a further dealership acquisition programme.
In June 2009 the group purchased three dealership locations from the receivers of Brooklyn Motors plc at Redditch, Cheltenham and Worcester. This brought the Mazda franchise into the group for the first time.
July 2009 saw the acquisition of our Ilford Vauxhall and Chevrolet dealership.
On 2nd November 2009 we added our Vauxhall Lichfield dealership to our portfolio, strengthening the Bristol Street Motors brand in its heartland of the West Midlands.
In December 2009 we acquired a dual franchised dealership in Darlington. Adding our third Renault site and bringing the SEAT franchise to the Group for the first time.
January 2010 is a huge step for the group where we open our first Scottish location in Dunfermline by acquiring Dunfermline Autocentre Ford car dealership.
In April 2010 we bought our second Scottish dealership, our Peugeot dealership in Paisley which was branded Macklin Motors, which is to be the Group’s brand for future dealership acquisitions in Scotland. This month also saw the relocation of our Renault business in Gloucester from a dual franchise to freehold property to allow for growth in scale.
On 9th June 2010 we rolled out further Macklin Motor dealerships with the acquisition of two dual franchised Ford and Mazda dealerships in Glasgow and Hamilton.
Also in June 2010 the group acquired Vauxhall dealerships in Crewe and Macclesfield.
In July 2010 we added a second SEAT dealership to our Bristol Street Motors portfolio with a dealership in Derby.
On 10th September 2010 the group purchased a Peugeot business in Dunfermline.
Also in September 2010, the group strengthened their regional concentration in the North West by acquiring two dual franchised dealerships in Altrincham (Renault and Nissan) and Macclesfield (Renault and Ford).
On 7 February 2011 the Group franchised its nonfranchised Motor Nation used car operation at Darlington with the Nissan franchise.
On 22 February 2011 the Group acquired the entire share capital of Patrick (Holdings) Limited. This company traded as Patricks of Durham, operating the Vauxhall franchise in Durham, Co Durham.
In April 2011 we welcomed SEAT Barnsley to our portfolio bring the total number of SEAT dealerships up to three.
On 1 June 2011 we added Mazda Bristol to our portfolio, this location also offers approved Land Rover and Saab servicing.