A new Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will go ahead in Nottingham after plans for the dual-arch dealership were revealed yesterday.
Pendragon has announced its plans to open the site upon completion in December 2019.
Planning permission was granted for the site in 2018. The plans go against Pendragon’s 2017 announcement that it was to reduce the number of Stratstone premium brand outlets in the UK over the following three years after a review of the business.
The new dealership plans were reported on by Nottinghamshire Live, to which Andrew Watt, Stratstone Jaguar Land Rover franchise director, said: “Stratstone Jaguar Land Rover Nottingham have experienced a period of healthy growth in recent years, so it was a no-brainer to develop these sites and enhance our customer journey.
“There is a large part of Stratstone’s history rooted in the local area in which our sites are based, so the sentimental value combined with the ambition to improve the services available make this development all the more rewarding.”
Once the new site is completed, the current local showroom in Derby Road will be closed. The Land Rover dealership at the Riverside Retail Park will become a service centre.
Pendragon is carrying out a review of company operations as the group turned in an underlying pre-tax losses of £2.8m in the three months to 31 March.
The group, which has just appointed Mark Herbert Herbert as CEO and Mark Willis as chief finance officer, said total gross profits for new cars fell -9.1%, used cars -1.6% and aftersales -9%.
Total group revenues rose 1.2% for the period with new revenues up 2.6%, used revenues down -0.2% and aftersales revenues up 2%. Like-for-like revenues grew 4.6% for the period.
Pendragon said “challenging trading conditions” hit like-for-like gross profits in new cars (-5.4%), used cars (-1.6%) and aftersales (-5%).
“This performance, combined with both a higher level of operating costs and increased losses within Car Store, arising from the ongoing development and maturation of the business resulted in an underlying loss before tax of £2.8m.
“This is around £10m lower than our expectations for the period, comprised of £7m from the net impact of higher revenue and lower margins, £2m of additional operating costs and £1m from the lower than expected Car Store performance,” it said.