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"The acquisition aims to secure the longer-term viability of the Aston Barclay network of centres and avoid further closures by bringing further investment into the business, along with incremental volume from the group’s growing WeBuyAnyCar business."
Aston Barclay operates five motor auction centres at Chelmsford, Prees Heath, Westbury, Donington Park and Wakefield. Its customers include Hedin Automotive, Arnold Clark and Toyota and Lexus Remarketing.
Last July it appointed a new chief operating officer, Eddie Thomson, who was once sales and operations director at BCA. Several other members of the Aston Barclay leadership team have extensive remarketing experience gained at BCA, Manheim and Scottish Motor Auctions.
That was a year after it had undertaken a senior management restructure which created new leadership roles and drove the exit of its chief executive Tom Marley, who subsequently joined Cox Automotive.
Aston Barclay was once owned by the Scarborough family, after it was founded by Les Scarborough in 1984, but in 2017 a management buyout backed by private equity firm Rutland Partners led to industry veterans Neil Hodson and Laurence Vaughan taking charge to scale up the business and increase its digital capabilities. Both left the business earlier this decade.
In its most recent company accounts, Aston Barclay reported revenues of £34.8 million, up from £29.3m the prior year, but a slump in pre-tax profit from £997,000 to £298,000.
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An award-winning journalist and editor, with two decades of experience covering the motor retail industry, and accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) plus the National Council for the Training of Journalist (NCTJ)
As editor of AM since 2016, Tim is responsible for its media content, planning and production across AM's multiple channels, including the website, digital reports, webinars, social media and the editorial content of AM's events, Automotive Management Live and the AM Awards. His focus is on interviewing senior leaders of franchised dealer groups and motor manufacturer national sales companies to examine latest developments in UK motor retail.
