Car supermarket axed by Lloyds sold in undisclosed deal

A CAR supermarket in Oldbury axed by a subsidiary of Lloyds Bank has been acquired in a major new deal.

Motorpoint, the Derby-headquartered vehicle retailer, has completed the acquisition of the former Car Select site in Churchbridge less than a fortnight after the garage closed.

Car Select was operated by Lex Autolease, a division of Lloyds Bank. The bank announced in April it was pulling the plug on the car supermarket site and its sister site in Coventry despite both businesses being profitable.

The closures resulted in 100 job losses.

In an announcement of the deal to the London Stock Exchange, Motorpoint said the Oldbury site was expected to be operational in July 2016.

Background details to the sale reveal a deal with Lex Autolease was concluded in April – a month before the site’s closure.

The Oldbury site, which covers approximately five acres and is located just off junction 2 of the M5, will stock 500 low mileage nearly new vehicles from 30 different manufacturers, and will have access to Motorpoint’s further 5,500 car stock.

This acquisition adds to the group’s existing West Midlands site at Aston Cross and brings its total number of sites to 11.

Mark Carpenter, chief executive of Motorpoint, said: “We are delighted to have completed this acquisition as the Motorpoint brand has proved extremely popular across the West Midlands since we launched our Birmingham site three years ago.”

There is no word on the sister Car Select site at Coventry – which was only opened by Lex Autolease two years ago. 

However, Lloyds said at the time it announced the closures that the business would be transferring to British Car Auctions. 

 

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