Lomond Audi dealership sold to national giant Lookers for £15m

Hugh McMahon, the former mechanic who founded Scottish Audi dealer Lomond Motors 14 years ago, has sold the business for £15 million to national operator Lookers.

Andy Bruce, managing director of Lookers’ motor division, told The Scotsman that the Lomond brand would be retained, along with its workforce of around 350 people, although McMahon has left the business following the deal.

The acquisition of Lomond, which has branches in Ayr, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, expands the group’s position in Scotland, where it already operates under the Taggarts brand.

Bruce said: “The Lomond business is one that we’ve long admired. It’s an area we’re familiar with, as Taggarts operate in Glasgow and Motherwell.”

News of the deal came as industry figures showed continued growth in car sales last month, driven by strong demand north of the Border.

The Scottish Motor Trade Association (SMTA) said a total of 16,694 new cars were registered in Scotland last month, a 9.3 per cent hike over June 2011. That compares with a rise of 3.5 per cent for the UK as a whole.

SMTA chief executive Douglas Robertson said the number of private buyers had risen almost 10 per cent over the past six months.

Ford and Vauxhall remained the most popular marques, with Vauxhall’s Corsa topping the sales chart in Scotland last month, although it was nudged into second place by the Ford Fiesta in the overall UK rankings.

There were 614 Audi models sold in Scotland during June, a year-on-year rise of about 4 per cent.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said there were 189,514 new registrations across the UK in June, taking sales for the first half of the year to 1,057,680, a 2.7 per cent rise on January-June 2011.

The SMMT believes sales will reach 1.95 million by the end of the year – just ahead of last year’s 1.94 million total.

Chief executive Paul Everitt said: “Despite domestic and international economic concerns, UK motorists are responding positively to new products and the latest fuel-efficient technology.

“The industry has performed better than expected in the first half of the year and we will now need to work hard to sustain growth.”

There was a 47.8 per cent rise in sales of alternatively-fuelled vehicles last month, while diesel sales also rose and have accounted for 51.2 per cent of total sales in the first half of 2012.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, described the figures as “encouraging”, but he warned that the motor industry still faces very challenging conditions.

He said: “Consumers are under major pressure from muted earnings growth, high unemployment and a need for many to deleverage.

“Furthermore, consumer confidence is still very low compared to long-term norms.”

Glasgow-based Lomond made a pre-tax profit of £700,000 last year. Net assets at the firm, which also distributes trade parts for the VW Group in Edinburgh and Glasgow, stood at £5.3m as of December 2011.