Sinclair Motor Holdings has moved into England with the acquisition of Shukers’ two Land Rover dealerships and a Hyundai business,
The purchase of Shukers Limited from the Rubery Owen Group sees the Sinclair Group broaden its Welsh territory up to Aberystwyth, where it will take over the Land Rover operation and also represent Hyundai for the first time.
Over 50 staff employed by Shukers have transferred to the Sinclair Group, which now employs 900 staff, representing 10 brands in 24 locations.
“Like us, Shukers is a well-established, family business and we share a similar culture and the same core values, focus and passion for providing outstanding customer service so this is a great fit for us,” said Andy Sinclair, Sinclair Group, managing director.
“The Jaguar Land Rover brand is extremely strong in the UK and is already an important part of our Group. The addition of two very successful Land Rover sites will significantly increase our territory for the brand and will double the points of representation we have following our takeover of retailers in Swansea and Brecon since 2018.”
Andy continued: “The opportunity to represent Hyundai for the first time is equally exciting, especially with its reputation for being so progressive on the electric vehicle front.
Sinclair turned in an impressive performance in 2021 with a six-fold increase in profits to £12.6m compared to £2m in 2020 on turnover up 20.7% to £544.4m.
The group said last year was the “most unpredictable year” its business has ever faced.”
“Whist the year ended as the most profitable 12 months in the group’s history, it was dominated by continued disruption from external uncontrollable events,” it added.
Sinclair said it had learnt lessons from the first lockdown and was geared up for remote sales.
“The difference however for this lockdown was that we were permitted to perform remote handovers, which enabled our group to sell cars on a click and collect basis. This was a major benefit to the group compared to the lockdowns of 2020.”
Sinclair also commented on the shortage of new cars due to semi-conductor supply constraints and how this had boosted profitability.
“All our manufacturer partners were unable to produce the volumes they would typically achieve, resulting in vehicle shortages in all markets. Whilst this presented us with a short-term volume issue, the positive was that vehicle profitability was stronger than normal times due to the ongoing shortages of availability versus demand.