Stoneacre buys Platts Garage in Stafford

Stoneacre Motor Group has bought Platts Garage in Stafford, representing Fiat, Dacia, Renault and Kia.

Platts has been located on the same site in  Lightwood Rd, Longton since 1938 when it was known as Peppers Garage. It was awarded the Fiat franchise in 1946 and billed itself as the longest established Fiat franchise in the UK.

The acquisition follows the January purchase of the Chris Variava business in Nottingham for an undisclosed sum. Chris Variava represents Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo and Jeep.

The group followed this up in February with the purchase of Burrows Hyundai and Fiat dealership in Sheffield.

Stoneacre is now forecasting pre-tax profits of £10m on turnover of £800m in the year to April 2018.

Managing director, Shaun Foweather, said: “We set ourselves a challenging but achievable target of a £1bn turnover by 2020.

“On top of our previous additions to our dealership network, our productivity in Q1 so far only breeds more confidence that we will meet that business objective with comfort.

“With this new showroom in Stafford, we’re also able to quickly double our Renault and

Dacia locations, having recently opened our first just a couple of weeks prior in Chesterfield.

“As always, we welcome the staff joining us from Platts. As with any of our new dealerships, we aim to support our latest members of staff with great training facilities and our ever developing

Stoneacre Academy, along with a seamless integration into the Stoneacre family.”

Stoneacre is rated 23 in the Motor Trader Top 200 with annual turnover of £560.9m, rising fast.

(Photo: Google)