Vertu has bought online van retailer www.vansdirect.co.uk based in Newport, South Wales for £7.5m.
The Vans Direct business was founded in 1999, billing itself as a specialist in the supply of new vans, finance, contract hire, hire purchase, offering direct delivery across the UK.
For the year ended 31 October 2017, it reported revenues of £34.6m, a gross margin of 11.7% and EBITDA of £1.2m. Vertu said the acquisition will be making money from day one.
Significantly, it moved into car sales in 2017 with the creation of www.carsandvansdirect.com.
Managing director Jane Peacock told Leasing Broker News in 2017: “The beauty of leasing brokers is that we can move with the times. There is demand for cars. With the size of our customer base it’s good to give our customers other choices.”
Pocock will remain a non-executive director of Vans Direct following the acquisition while operations director Richard Simmonds and 42 staff will transfer with the company.
The £7.5m figure includes £6m of good will and a performance related element. An additional earning of up to £2m is available on achieving higher future targets.
Robert Forrester, CEO of Vertu Motors said: “This is an exciting development in a growing space, which is synergistic and parallel to our core motor retail business and which strengthens our multi-channel offering.
“We expect Vans Direct to generate an earnings stream with higher gross and net margins than those typically earned by the group, and we believe that the future growth prospects for this new business are significant.
“By working with the complementary skills of the Vans Direct team and the group’s existing operations, we believe that we can build a significant business which will meet the needs of a wider range of customers.”