Yorkshire founders sell vehicle inspection firm
A NATIONAL vehicle inspection company founded in Yorkshire, which carries out pre-sale and warranty reports for organisations including the AA, is to accelerate its growth after being sold to a major international business.
The entire share capital of CarCheckers, founded in 2000 as a partnership by its two main Yorkshire-based shareholders, has been sold to DEKRA International GmbH in the deal.
CarCheckers, now renamed DEKRA Expert, has its two founders based in York and Bingley, West Yorkshire, six staff at its head office in Holsworthy, Devon, and more than 35 sub-contracted engineers throughout the UK.
The company, which has been sold for an undisclosed sum, was founded by motor industry consultants Ian Clark, a former AA engineer, of York, and Nigel Heaton, of Bingley, who had previously worked in vehicle inspection and warranty markets.
CarCheckers became a limited company in 2006 when business development director, Andy Ferrett, and administrator, Angie Davies, joined from vehicle inspection business VCS of Ashwater, Devon.
As well as working nationally for the AA, CarCheckers supports a range of blue-chip businesses in the warranty, vehicle finance and fleet markets.
The CarCheckers shareholders were advised by York-based law firm Denison Till.
The deal, in which the company was advised by solicitor Matthew Morton and partner Andrew Lindsay from Denison Till’s corporate department, followed an approach from DEKRA last year as part of its UK expansion plans.
Mr Clark said: “This acquisition will allow DEKRA Expert to expand rapidly and become the largest independent vehicle inspection business in the UK.
“This deal represents a good result for us professionally and personally and means that the original venture has exceeded our expectations.”
DEKRA International GmbH, which was advised by London-based lawyers, Pritchard Englefield, is part of DEKRA Automotive International, one of four businesses operating under Stuttgart-based Dekra AG, which has a presence in 27 European countries and the USA, Brazil and China with more than 18,000 staff.
DEKRA Expert’s managing director, Peter Chapman, said: “This acquisition represents a winning formula by combining the former CarCheckers management team’s wealth of local knowledge with DEKRA’s broader industry know-how which, when tailored to individual customer needs, will represent an unrivalled ability to deliver top-class services.”
