Ford Retail sells European arm in multi-million pound deal

Chris Hayden, Ford Retail's chairman and CEO, said the sale of its nine European dealerships in Brussels, Amsterdam and Vienna to MVC Capital would enable it to focus on the group's 55 UK outlets.

“Our aim is to be recognised as the best volume vehicle retailer in the UK, judged by our customers, employees and shareholder and we have in place a programme of continued change and improvement that will capitalise on our recent achievements to help us deliver this goal,” he said.

Last year Hayden told Motor Trader that while the group had learnt a lot from its European ventures he admitted it had found operating there challenging. “We are a UK business and it would be wrong to say that we have not found Europe difficult,” he said. Ford Retail, number 10 in the Motor Trader Top 200, was launched in 2004 and was borne out of a series of joint ventures the carmaker had with dealer groups in the UK. The European sites, which were all wholly owned by the carmaker, were also placed under the Ford Retail umbrella.

Ford Retail is Europe's largest Ford dealer group with a UK turnover of £827million. It trades as Dagenham Motors in London and the south east, Polar Ford in Yorkshire and the north west, Heartlands Ford in Birmingham and Brunel Ford in Bristol and the west. The group also operates three Mazda dealerships and three Iveco sites in the south east and has a joint venture with Lindsay Ford in Northern Ireland. Last month Ford Retail unveiled plans to build a new £4.5m flagship site in east London which will open next April under the Dagenham Ford banner.