Dealer’s Diary
Marshall plan
The big retail motor industry new story at present is the sale of Cambridgebased Marshall Motor Holdings to Constellation Automotive, owners of British Car Auctions, webuyanycar.com and Cinch. The deal is likely to take three or four months to complete, but there seems little doubt that it will happen, with both the MMH Board and, crucially, the Marshall family (whose majority stake still effectively controls the business) supporting the sale.
Marshall is no longer a regional company; as a result of expansions and acquisitions it’s now Britain’s seventh-largest car dealership group – and has a presence in 37 of Britain’s counties. Some of these operate under different names – for example the recent addition to the group of Motorline’s 16 dealerships located from Kent to Birmingham.
This change is significant on many levels. Now, through its three other businesses (, Cinch and Marshall) ‘BCA’ is no longer simply a trade company; it’s effectively involved in all stages of the car sales business from retail sale of new cars to trade disposal of overage part-exchanges.
