A family owned AM100 dealer group is offloading a set of its prestige brand dealerships to latest owners in Dubai.
Harwoods is selling its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) franchises, together with its BMW & Mini and Volvo authorised repairer operations, to DXB Investments.
DXB, an investment company headquartered in Dubai, will operate the companies under the brand new name of Southeast Motors.
A family owned AM100 dealer group is offloading a set of its prestige brand dealerships to latest owners in Dubai.
Harwoods is selling its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) franchises, together with its BMW & Mini and Volvo authorised repairer operations, to DXB Investments.
DXB, an investment company headquartered in Dubai, will operate the companies under the brand new name of Southeast Motors.
All employees on the affected Harwoods sites will transfer to the brand new owner.
Harwoods Group chief executive Archie Harwood said: “It has been our pleasure to serve the communities by which we have now represented our manufacturer partners, and it has been decided by our shareholders that now’s the appropriate time for us to resize and reposition ourselves.
“We’re confident that the proud teams we have now built up will flourish under the brand new ownership, investment, and best practice that DXB will bring from their very own experience of our industry. We are going to proceed to speculate our concentrate on the success, growth and development of our remaining operations.”
It leaves Harwoods representing luxury brands including Aston Martin, Bentley and McLaren, plus premium brand Audi.
The move comes nearly a 12 months after Harwoods announced the choice to shut its Land Rover dealership in Pulborough and Chichester Jaguar dealership, as JLR rationalised its network and ready to relaunch the Jaguar brand.
It also announced a brand new partnership with Chinese brand BYD at Crawley and Couldson, but AM has learned that each BYD dealerships were closed in the course of the summer after trading for lower than a 12 months.
Archie Harwood said on the time: “As our manufacturer partners implement changes to streamline its dealer structure these closures reflect the need of adapting to the evolving market and retail. These decisions weren’t taken flippantly, but they’re essential for the longer term success of the business.”
Founded in 1931 by Wallace Harwood, the daddy of current director Guy Harwood and grandfather of chief executive Archie Harwood, the group has grown into a longtime family-run dealer group that sits currently at thirtieth place within the AM100.
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