Earlier this year, Marshall Motor Holdings (MMH) made a strategic acquisition that would grow it to become the 7th largest motor dealer group in the UK. It added 30 franchises with existing brand partners to its portfolio and allowed it to gain entry into new geographical regions. The acquisition in question was of Ridgeway Garages, a UK multi-franchise dealer group based in the affluent southern counties which represents twelve well-known brands including Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, BMW, and Maserati.
Daksh Gupta, CEO of MMH, says the value-enhancing decision was just another example of the company’s aggressive acquisition approach, in a market currently going through a phase of consolidation. “From our perspective, scale brings significant benefit to the organisation in terms of sharing best practice, and deriving significant value in terms of our supply chain and our suppliers,” he explains. “So scale has ultimately driven synergy and purchasing terms which has led to better profitability. With the latest acquisition of Ridgeway, we now have 4,100 people within the organisation and that’s going to provide more career opportunities, which is good news for our employees. When you look at the size of the group now, we have 60% more stock to sell, which is good news from a customer perspective because it means we can offer more choice. It’s good news for all parties really.
“That’s why we’ve been quite acquisitive since the financial crisis in 2008 and when you look at the organisation and how it has grown, you can see how beneficial that has been for our profitability.”