Motor retailer John Clark in top gear

John Clark Motor Group has revved up its presence in Tayside following the acquisition of the Volvo Dundee dealership.

The latest showroom addition strengthens the group’s relationship with the Swedish brand, coming hot on the heels of the introduction of Volvo Cars in Edinburgh.

The Volvo Dundee facility is located at Macadam Place off the Kingsway, having moved from its previous home at Riverside Drive. It will be based there for the next 12 months before relocating to a permanent home at Rutherford Road once a new BMW facility has been constructed.

Financial terms surrounding the latest acquisition have not been disclosed.

John Clark Motor Group is one of Scotland’s largest motor retailers with 36 dealerships in the north-east and east of Scotland, operating in Aberdeen, Cupar, Dundee, Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Elgin, Kirkcaldy, Perth and Stirling.

Brands represented by the company include Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mini, Volkswagen and Volvo.

Chris Clark, group managing director, said: “We are looking forward to opening a new home for Volvo Cars in Dundee and welcoming customers to the showroom, as well as some of the existing Volvo Dundee staff into the John Clark Motor Group.

“They are a brilliant team of people and we intend to invest in further training to ensure they are confident with the products and the systems to ensure a seamless transition of the business.”

The new facility will be refurbished to provide a spacious showroom area with additional display space for 65 used vehicles. The workshop includes seven bays including MOT provision.

Paul Lanni, brand director, who will oversee the dealership, said: “I am personally very excited about the new dealership as we have a great team to work with, some brilliant products, such as the recently launched XC40 and V60, plus some exciting models planned for the future.

“Opening a new site is very challenging and I am pleased to say that we have managed to achieve this in an incredibly tight time scale.

“I am fully confident that with the new team in place the dealership will quickly be fully operational and we look forward to welcoming customers to a launch event in the very near future.”

The group said it was continuing to invest in Dundee with future developments planned for later this year and early 2019, “offering further employment opportunities for the city at a time of exciting change”.

It added that it was strengthening the brand portfolio across key locations in Scotland.

In 2017, turnover at John Clark Motor Group grew by 5 per cent to £742 million from £703m the previous year, while its dealerships sold 28,136 units, despite “volatile market conditions”.

Recent figures showed that Scotland’s new car market hit the brakes in June, suffering a fall in sales that was twice that of the UK as a whole.

Industry leaders said a “disappointing” 17,576 cars were registered north of the Border during the month, down almost 7 per cent on the same month last year. The figures came after it was revealed that sales across the UK had fallen 3.5 per cent, year-on-year.