Stoneacre Motor Group have made their biggest ever acquisition, buying the Chesterfield based £78 million turnover Huntson Holdings Plc, who trade as Autoworld.
The deal for an undisclosed sum will take £440 million turnover Stoneacre comfortably into the £500 million plus club of the UK’s 15-20 largest dealer groups, lifting the group into the company of Group1 Automotive and Perrys.
Autoworld sell Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Hyundai, Fiat, SEAT, Suzuki, Volvo, Triumph and Harley Davidson vehicles and employ around 230 staff. Last year they made a profit before tax of £1.4m on turnover of £78m, with Net Assets of £10.4m.
The Preistnall family who owned Huntson Holdings Plc have decided to focus their interests outside of the automotive industry.
Stoneacre’s Group Managing Director, Shaun Foweather said, “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Autoworld which extends our relationship with a number of manufacturers. It also firmly highlights our strategy to grow Stoneacre as a group across the UK. The business we are acquiring has a history of strong profits due to some great people working there and we very much look forward to welcoming them into the Stoneacre family.”
Talking about the deal, David Kendrick, Partner, UHY Automotive who represented Autoworld said, “Autoworld is a fantastic business that has delivered strong profits for a number of years now. This transaction again highlights the fact that the larger groups are continuing to consolidate and is a statement of intent from Stoneacre that they are looking to grow to this £1bn turnover target.”
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