Pendragon is the holding company
15 outlets to close = 400 jobs
1400 further jobs across roughly 150 sites
The chain were struggling before Covid and closure for 3 months did not help.
Despite a turnover £4Bn the company is only worth under £100m - their premises must be leased and their stock financed. Shares are around 7p each.
Last edited by: Falkirk Bairn on Thu 30 Jul 20 at 19:20
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They were already broken, COVID just brought it to a head and allowed various egos to admit the position without self harm.
The cost structure of a dealership is such that they need to control the market within their catchment area.
Internet based purchasing has ben the first in-road into that. The pursuit of protectionism in servicing on the back of their warranties has been another hack into their well-being.
The cost conscious market has been buying from the internet and servicing in that competitive world of packages with indie input.
The remainder of their market wants gin palaces, free coffee and outstanding customer service but is of insufficient size to fund it. So they're even losing them (me).
They should have stopped flogging a dead horse 15 years ago. That was the time to look for new business models, not now.
(And yes, I did tell them. 2009, to be precise)
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>>They should have stopped flogging a dead horse 15 years ago.
Spot on. A seriously dysfunctional market for decades and the unravelling won't go into reverse.
There's a lot of it about, e.g. the mobile phone market.
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>> There's a lot of it about, e.g. the mobile phone market.
Indeed, I suspect that travel agents will be the next crowd to admit it.
Then airlines, steel industry, IC car manufacturing, ship building, and so many more.
Products and service for which there is a material demand are still in for a difficult time. But if you have a product or service which is essentially in the gutter having been struggling for years, then either re-invent your business model or say goodbye. All those businesses which they have believed and told you that you wanted but you actually didn't, are set to die.
Ironically of course, those very business which the clever and trendy have deemed as dead, may very well rise to the top; bespoke services, niche products, etc etc.
Making mainstream products and services look like bespoke services and niche products delivered with mind boggling convenience to the consumer is the way forward.
I must say that on a trivial level it does my humour no harm to see previously condescending b******s, such as the likes of car dealerships, dragged down to reality. But perhaps I'm just bitter.
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Me too!!
Strangely enough the Service General Manager I was chatting to today previously worked for a guy called Paul Dixon. Hull guy. No longer with us.
Quite an astute business man. Paul Dixon Motor Holdings. A think a couple of times at least he sold out at the top and bought back as the business crashed but kept hold of the property leases.
His timing was impeccable. Think he had his hands on Carnell at one time.
Believe he was the first to try internet car buying, based at Thorne near Doncaster - Jamjar Cars.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamjarcars
I only thought of him as he developed a large site outside Hull with multiple dealerships in on one large plot, looking at each other.
Evans Halshaw took over the lot - Ford, Vauxhall, Citroen oh and Kia. Wouldn't go near them for Kia. I go further afield to get robbed. Maybe I should try them. They are the closest. Cant do any worse. I really need to let it go :))
Last edited by: Fullchat on Fri 31 Jul 20 at 01:32
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Tom Farmer bought & sold Kwikfit many times over 30/40 years.
Tyre company owned sites for sale, bought the lot - closed some down & sold the land etc - on one occasion he paid just under £200m for 150 sites - sold of the land & building of redundant sites for more money & kept the 70/80 sites, that cost him nothing, to expand coverage.
His customer ethics were dodgy (leaky Shock absorbers, holes in exhaust, brake disks & pads)BUT he could wheel & deal - Ford bought Kwikfit 30 years ago & he bought it back for less.
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Is their business model drastically different to Arnold Clark who are very successful?
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>> Is their business model drastically different to Arnold Clark who are very successful?
Yes. It includes Used cars.
And they are not "very successful" across the board. As far as I can see the part of their business that relies on new car sales and initial servicing is suffering as badly as everybody else.
www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business/business-news/987856/further-fall-in-new-car-sales-for-arnold-clark/
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Usual mix of debt, pension liabilities mean trading on the edge, recession pushes them over.
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Not understanding a changing business model and insisting on flogging a familiar dead horse doesn't help.
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Evans Halshaw/Stratstone 1800 job losses - Dog
