Anyone driving into west London during the past few months will have seen several new motor dealerships being built, notably Kia, VW group and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). As multi-million pound developments, these new dealerships are clear indication that pre-Brexit the UK motor industry was in robust health.
Perhaps the most interesting of these is JLR which is currently going through a major renewal of its UK franchised dealer network increasing its focus on dual or ‘arch’ dealerships, combining Jaguar and Land Rover brands under one roof. The review, which has reduced franchised Group partners from 41 to 35 groups will have 138 sites amongst which there will be 85 dual dealerships, 40 Land Rover single sites and 13 Jaguar single sites.
The review has required many dealerships adopt the new JLR dealer concept, including external design and brand concepts along with changes to the layout and customer journey within the dealership’s sales and service areas. Many of the changes include technology anticipated within dealerships, including facilities for hybrid and electric vehicles and virtual reality, recently used in the launch of the F-Type and F-Pace and likely to be adopted more widely in the future.
Justifying dealership investment is predicated on continued growth of sales, anticipated new models and healthy servicing margins and used car sales. New car registrations show continued Y-on-Y increase for the past six years for both brands.
As a great British design and manufacturing success – albeit with huge Tata investment – eight of every ten cars manufactured is sold outside the UK underlining the need for a third new factory in Slovakia, adding to those in China, Brazil and new UK facilities in Wolverhampton and Coventry.
If, like us, you’re interested to learn more of JLR and some of the changes within their dealer network at the moment, check out Tom Sharpe’s excellent review at am-online.com.