Arnold gets another one
Discussion
cas20 said:
I wonder where the next consolidation will be. Will AC make another purchase or just keep adding here and there
I think they will just keep adding a site here and there, possibly taking over places who only have one site as well, traditionally they've bought individual sites mainly rather than whole groups, whole group takeovers like John R Weir and Ness are rare. They do have a few developments of their own ongoing as well:
- Adding Fiat and Abarth to the Jeep site in Kemnay
- Makro Hillington development and associated closures or redevelopment of Pollokshaws Renault to house VW, VW at Kilmarnock Rd, Shawlands to used Mini, Vehicle Management/Finance site at St Georges Rd, Customer Services and IT dept at Allison Street, Recruitment dept at Rutherrglen Ford/Fiat, Property Services at Kilbirnie St Van Centre, Head office from round the back of Pollokshaws Vauxhall service dept site at Nithsdale Drive when all those functions move to Hillington.
- Possible closure/redevelopment of Paisley Fiat whenFiat/Abarth franchises open at Hillington
- Closure and redevelopment of Paisley Renault when it moves to Hillington
- whatever work they are currently undertaking at Milngavie Ford/Vauxhall
- Redeveloping Stratstone Honda Leeds to Fiat/Jeep/Alfa
- Linwood Chevrolet showroom to Jeep/Alfa
- Redeveloping the old GTG premises at Sighthill, Edinburgh to a dealership.
- Installing new franchise to Perth Chevrolet showroom
- Alex Parade and Royston Road developments
- No doubt some form of redevelopment or relocation of the recently acquired East Kilbride Vauxhall.
Another wee update, this time not about Arnold.
Parks multi franchise site in EK is opening a Peugeot showroom in an extension being built at the end of the building where Renault is, it's only had the main building structure and walls built and is about half dome but already the unmistakeable Peugeot "blue box" corporate building ID is obvious.
Parks multi franchise site in EK is opening a Peugeot showroom in an extension being built at the end of the building where Renault is, it's only had the main building structure and walls built and is about half dome but already the unmistakeable Peugeot "blue box" corporate building ID is obvious.
Peugeot in North Lanarkshire is served by Taggarts (Motherwell) and the Arnold Clark in the East End which is within easy reach of Coatbridge etc. In South Lanarkshire there is no Peugeot dealer and the adjacent areas of Glasgow are also a good target area for Parks. I guess Park's are happy with their Bathgate Peugeot- despite the terrible location.
cas20 said:
Peugeot in North Lanarkshire is served by Taggarts (Motherwell) and the Arnold Clark in the East End which is within easy reach of Coatbridge etc. In South Lanarkshire there is no Peugeot dealer and the adjacent areas of Glasgow are also a good target area for Parks. I guess Park's are happy with their Bathgate Peugeot- despite the terrible location.
Yeah there used to be quite a few dealers of Peugeot in the area but most dropped the sales franchise and remained authorised repairers and weren't then taken over and Peugeot dropped completely. - Townpark in Strathaven were Peugeot for years then switched to Ford and kept Peugeot authorised repairer status just not new car sales then Arnold took them over and it's now just Ford.
- Verve in Coatbridge were Peugeot as well as Citroen/Kia, even as far back as Motorway Cars before Verve, then Veve lost/dropped Peugeot sales but kept authorised repairer then they went bust and Parks took over and now there's nothing of Peugeot at all.
- same with Shields at Blantyre, the current Macklin Ford/Mazda was built as a Peugeot blue box showroom, then Shields dropped Peugeot sales but kept authorised repairer when they switched to Mitsubishi and then Ford, then Macklin took over and now nothing of Peugeot there either now.
- Ladyacre in Lanark did similar again, full Peugeot dealer, then authorised repairer, now closed.
I also seem to remember there was a Peugeot dealer in EK before, Eastfield Motor Co possibly? Was based at the Queensway Motor Park when Arnold's Motorstore and Toyota and Evans Halshaw Ford are now, back when Reg Vardy Renault and Park Automobile Rover had sites there too.
HendryG said:
You beat me to it, was just about to post that. That's been a long open point for Nissan IIRC, as far back as 2009 when Arnold closed their Nissan site in Dumfries.
Also SDM refurbishing their Middlefield road Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan. Looks like the signage just needs sorted now. cas20 said:
apparently not, I mentioned this a page back but think we cross posted. I saw new Nissan cars being displayed by SDM outside Tesco Camelon last week.
Ah OK yeah didn't see that. Seems very odd, on another forum a member called SDM a couple of weeks ago to book his car in for warranty work to be told that they were soon to no longer be Nissan and he'd have to wait until the new dealer opened. You'd think it was a done deal if they were telling customers that. HendryG said:
Ah OK yeah didn't see that. Seems very odd, on another forum a member called SDM a couple of weeks ago to book his car in for warranty work to be told that they were soon to no longer be Nissan and he'd have to wait until the new dealer opened. You'd think it was a done deal if they were telling customers that.
Yeah, I saw that too so assumed it was true. But the sign is still up and the Tesco petrol station at Camelon had an SDM Nissan on display. Falkirk is one of those places where you dont see Arnold Clark stickers everywhere! SDM appear to have a strong market share.Just found a very interesting topic on Vauxhall Vectra owners forum about Woods West Calder, a few on there seem to know some people there and the insider info seems to be that very soon Arnie will be changing the franchise to Kia there. I'd have thought that was a bit odd with Parks Kia Bathgate in close proximity.
I know the two ex Verve sites from before the Verve days. Both of the sites are real dogs. I thought the Coatbridge site might end up being merged into a large Parks multi-site somewhere in Coatbridge. The Bathgate site was always going to be a struggle I think. Kia and Arnold get on very well and they may have offered Kia an alternative.
cas20 said:
I know the two ex Verve sites from before the Verve days. Both of the sites are real dogs. I thought the Coatbridge site might end up being merged into a large Parks multi-site somewhere in Coatbridge. The Bathgate site was always going to be a struggle I think. Kia and Arnold get on very well and they may have offered Kia an alternative.
Just found it a bit strange after them taking the franchise from Woods for their own Livingston site, then going to all the effort of then buying Woods which was of no real benefit to them as they'd already taken its biggest asset - the Vauxhall franchise, then reinstalled the Vauxhall franchise. Plus although Kia are becoming more mainstream I'd have thought Vauxhalls would be more common so more likely to sell better, busier after sales for servicing, repairs and parts as more common cars which is vital for a small site to thrive, that and they've got a huge Kia dealership at Seafield direction in Edinburgh to satisfy Kia owners, plus I'd doubt Parks would've taken on the Bathgate franchise without guarantees of a franchise longer term than 18/24 months. Parks seem to have refurbished the Coatbridge site slightly but Bathgate does look a mess, looks like plenty of spare space at the back of the showroom where the compound and what looks like it was once a bodyshop building are if they decides to demolish and rebuild a new showroom on the site and move it back a bit and extend the used car display area. That said Parks aren't really ones for refurbs either, a lot of their own sites are still dogs themselves with no modernisation for years (Motherwell hasn't been done up since they took on the franchise in 2004 and still has the old corporate signage and a tired interior, Coatbridge Whifflet site not much better) or were a mess for years before being improced (Irvine site since 1998 before 2012 redevelopment, and the mess that is Hamilton Skoda which is just about to undergo major refurbishment so I hear)
PS do you remember the other Motorway Cars/Verve site for Citroen in Lanark? A tiny wee showroom on a fuel station forecourt, what was that all about, not even sure if it had a workshop or repair garage elsewhere or if it was solely Citroen sales.
Edited by HendryG on Friday 1st May 21:45
cas20 said:
Yeah I do remember it. No new car dealers left in Lanark at all now.
The talk on the Vectra forum where they were talking about Woods West Calder becoming Kia was that Woods lost the franchise because Vauxhall wanted them to spend a substantial 6 figure sum on refurbishing the site, in turn Vauxhall would guarantee them the franchise for at least another 5 year term, however when it came to it Vauxhall wanted them to do it with the promise of only a guarantee of the franchise for a year with a review before awarding them the franchise the next year and the same each year. Woods refused as they didn't feel the investment merited it, some people had said Ross of Lanark were in a similar situation and also refused to spend that much for a yearly franchise award,hence why they are now Vauxhall service/warranty and parts only now. Has anyone heard any rumours that Arnie is apparently buying some more Evans Halshaw branches in the Glasgow area?
A relative bought a used Nissan Note from Arnies at Royston Road, the ex Nissan one, and she mentioned as she knows I'm interested in this sort of thing that she had also been looking at Halshaws Ford on Cumbernauld Road, she said she'd been chatting with the salesman she bought from at Royston Road that she'd had a look at some other places nearby such as Halshaws, Macklins place at Balmore etc and he happened to say something like "some of the Evans Halshaws will be changing to Arnold Clark shortly"
Could be interesting if its true.
A relative bought a used Nissan Note from Arnies at Royston Road, the ex Nissan one, and she mentioned as she knows I'm interested in this sort of thing that she had also been looking at Halshaws Ford on Cumbernauld Road, she said she'd been chatting with the salesman she bought from at Royston Road that she'd had a look at some other places nearby such as Halshaws, Macklins place at Balmore etc and he happened to say something like "some of the Evans Halshaws will be changing to Arnold Clark shortly"
Could be interesting if its true.
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