Stoneacre Motor Group

Stoneacre Motor Group is a car dealership group based in the United Kingdom, having been established in December 1994. The company started trading by acquiring Stoneacre in 1994, a used car dealership based in Scunthorpe that had gone bankrupt.^[1] Stoneacre offers new and used car sales, as well as many aftersales services such as car servicing and MOTs. In the year to April 2019, Stoneacre had registered a turnover of £982m on its way to a targeted turnover of over £1 billion come 2020, while pre-tax profits rose to £17m (a 25 per cent increase year over year).^[2]

In December 2014, Staffordshire-based Randles Motor Group, with a turnover of £30 million, was acquired by the company.^[3][4] Stoneacre followed this up with the acquisition of the Chesterfield-based Autoworld, an £80m-turnover group, in 2015.^[5] Stoneacre added Honda and Mitsubishi to its portfolio in 2017 through the acquisition of Gilder Group in Sheffield and Rotherham.^[6]

In 2018, the franchise dealership completed multiple purchases, starting with the acquisition of Chris Variava in Nottingham,^[7] before obtaining two showrooms from Burrows Motor Company in Sheffield.^[8] In March, Stoneacre completed the purchase of Platts Garage in Stafford,^[9] a dealership with multiple franchises. Later in the year, the purchase of Mill Garages North East was completed,^[10] a Volvo dealership with three showrooms in the North East and one in Harrogate (Knaresborough). Initially delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Stoneacre completed the buyout of Hodgson Motor Group in the summer of 2020, adding Toyota to its list of franchises and four additional showrooms in the North East.^[11]

In early 2015, Stoneacre opened a purpose-built, 14-car Aston Martin showroom at Newcastle's Silverlink Retail and Business Park. The opening night of the showroom saw the public debut of the DB11, which kick-started the Gaydon firm's 'Second Century' plan, with then Aston Martin CEO, Andy Palmer, also in attendance.^[12]

June 2019 saw the inaugural Stoneacre Cup take place at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster—Doncaster Rovers' home ground—organised through Stoneacre's sponsorship of the South Yorkshire football club.^[13] The aim of the Stoneacre Cup is to invite local primary schools in the Doncaster area to play in an inter-schools football tournament, with eight teams playing in this first running of the competition.^[14] The Covid outbreak halted plans for a second running in 2020.

• Official website