Major car dealership with over 120 locations to close branch ‘imminently' after more than 50 years
Scroll down to find out why so many UK car dealerships are closing
STALLED ENGINE Major car dealership with over 120 locations to close branch 'imminently' after more than 50 years
A POPULAR car dealership with over 120 locations has announced it is closing a branch after 50 years.
Lookers is set to close its head office in Altrincham, after being based in Greater Manchester since 1973.
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Lookers is set to close its head office in Manchester
Credit: Google Maps
Rumours had been circulating that staff would be made redundant, but managing director James Brearley assured that this is not true.
Instead, around 12 members of staff will be relocated to another Lookers site, in Stoke-on-Trent.
Addressing the rumours, Mr Brearley told Car Dealer: "That is categorically not true and it's important we put the record straight," he said.
"The Altrincham site will be closing imminently but that effects 12 staff all of whom will be moving to another of our site's in Stoke on Trent.
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"There will be no redundancies."
Lookers was taken over by Canadian company Global Auto Holdings in October 2023, in a deal worth £504 million.
Following the takeover, a number of redundancies were made by the new owners.
Lookers was founded in 1908 as a bicycle seller and eventually switched to cars.
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By the 1960s, it was one of the leading chains, alongside Pendragon, Inchcape and Marshall.
The dealership was hit hard by the pandemic, and axed 1500 jobs in 2020.
Major UK car dealership closes down
This comes after another car dealership, TC Harrison Ford in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, closed its doors for the last time earlier this month.
The closure was confirmed after planners granted permission for a new retirement village to be built on the dealership's site last year.
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TC Harrison confirmed last month that the dealership would close on May 16, 2025.
Happily, there will be no job losses following the closure, with all business activities and staff to relocate to the the firm's Huntingdon branch, just 11 miles away.
Why are so many car dealerships closing down?
By Summer Raemason
According to Business Rescue Expert there are multiple reasons why car dealerships are folding across the UK.
The first major factor is rising online car sales which are beating in-person sales at dealerships.
With an extensive range of comparison and second-hand sites to chose from, may car buyers don't even step foot into a dealership anymore.
Secondly, the actual cost to physically run the sites has soared.
Rent, wages and energy bills have all been increasing for roughly the past five years, putting many out of pocket.
Car manufacturing across the globe was also hit by a semiconductor chip shortage in 2022 which made it difficult to produce new motors.
The high demand with limited supply created a backlog, which although has eased, is still having an impact on the industry.
A third reason for recent closures is the shift to electric cars.
They are becoming more popular, given the Government initiative to be Net Zero in 2050.
The industry is also affected when companies merge or are bought by rivals.
This may lead to some independent names falling victim to the ongoing spate of closures.
And a huge car dealership with over 91,000 vehicles currently on sale will close within weeks putting over 100 jobs at risk.
The German online used car marketplace has made heavy losses since opening in the UK in 2019 when it looked to rival Auto Trader and Motors.
Heycar's majority shareholder, Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS), have pulled the plug leaving more than 126 employees across the UK, Germany, and France at risk of losing their jobs.
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A large proportion of Heycar's employees are based in the UK.
They are expected to close in the UK shortly after their closure in Germany, in mid-May.
And a Volkswagen dealership in Wirral has also recently closed, after it's owner US-based Group 1 decided it was restructuring, as part of a £346 million deal.
A Volkswagen spokesperson told the Globe: 'We can confirm that Group 1 Volkswagen Wirral ceased trading at the end of March and is now closed.
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'Our focus when any network changes take place remains on convenience and the highest levels of service.
'Customers have been contacted to advise them of alternative sales, service and parts facilities.'
Hundreds of jobs are at risk due to the restructuring.
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Instead the space is occupied by the giant footprint created by Rio Tinto's Anglesey Aluminium plant, built around 1970. 'Its location, estimated from the 1888-1913 OS map, places it where the buildings were erected,' said Mr Price. 'The last person to have seen it may have been a JCB driver. "Yet it's is highly unlikely the stone was simply discarded - someone must know what happened to it. Does anyone remember seeing the milestone being moved or removed? 'Perhaps it stills exist somewhere nearby – in storage, on private land or in someone's garden? Do any former Anglesey Aluminium workers, contractors, or former Anglesey Council employees recall what may have happened to the milestone during construction?' Anyone who can help Mr Price complete his quest, and so preserve an important element of the region's heritage, can contact him via email on TelfordMilestones@ A clue to what might have happened can be found in a Denbighshire pub. Mounted on the wall near the entrance is what Mr Price and others suspect is the original cast iron plate from a milestone. A replacement plate has since been fitted to the milestone itself. 'You can see the damage, where the stone was broken to insert a pry bar behind the cast iron plate for removal,' said Mr Price. 'The plates were inset into the stones to make them more difficult to remove. Steel pegs or nails secured the plates, likely driven into lead-sleeved holes.' There's no suggestion, he added, that the pub is aware of the plate's provenance. The A5 milestones were designed by Telford himself and made from limestone quarried from near Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey. This was the same source for some of the stone used for both bridges across the Menai Strait as well as Admiralty Arch on Salt Island, Holyhead. Recognising their historical importance, some years ago the Welsh Government undertook work to preserve the A5 milestones. 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The grit was also available to spread on snow and ice during severe weather - particularly relevant in places like the Nant Ffrancon Pass, where some good examples can be seen. The alcoves are usually 16ft long and are either rectangular or semi-circular. Mr Price said they were sited with typical exactness. 'They were located on the side of the road that gave them maximum sunlight, thus keeping the gravel drier and less likely to get frozen,' he said. Having taken a deep dive into the A5's engineering, infrastructure and logistics, he remains in awe of its achievement and robustness. To document his findings, he's compiled a database of A5 milestones. It was recently published online, an excellent resource for anyone with an interest in local history. You can find it here. In its introduction, he wrote: 'To support the mail service from London to Holyhead, a journey that took 27 hours, teams of four horses were changed at approximately every 12 miles. 'The mail coaches in particular travelled not only by day but also in the dark of night, aided only by oil lamps affixed to the coaches, and in all weathers; nothing could be allowed to delay the mail, which was the basis of all distant communication in those days." He continued: 'The system was so well-organised and efficient that as a mail coach approached a toll gate its post-horn was sounded. Toll-keepers who delayed the mail by failing to open the gate promptly were fined. 'Stagecoach travel was fraught with danger – not only from tragic accidents but also deliberate acts of sabotage, such as tree branches or farm gates placed in the road to trip the horses. Vandalism is not just a modern day occurrence.' As well as mail coaches, passing the milestones would have been horse riders, horse-drawn carriages and scores of people on foot. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox Mr Price added: "It is not hard to imagine today, as we pass these mostly highly visible milestones as we travel on the A5, the passengers in the stagecoaches glancing at the milestones as they ticked off the miles on what was said by many to be a very tedious journey."
