Sandown Group opens Mercedes-Benz of Newbury

Poole-headquartered Sandown Group has extended its retail network north into Berkshire with the acquisition of Mercedes-Benz of Newbury. The London Road site in Newbury was taken over from Sytner Group. Sandown now operates at eight locations in Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Dorset and Wiltshire, where it offers Mercedes-Benz, AMG and smart sales and aftersales services.

Gavin McAllister, Sandown’s managing director, said that he was honoured to welcome Mercedes-Benz of Newbury and its staff into the group. “In terms of its location and proximity to our other retailers, Newbury is a perfect fit that enables us to reach into West Berkshire so its addition is an important step in our ongoing growth,” he said. “As a business, we are completely dedicated to delivering excellence and remain passionate about providing the very highest levels of service to existing and prospective customers across each and every one of our sites.”

State-of-the-art facilities

Mercedes-Benz of Newbury boasts a seven-car showroom, while its approved used display of 40 vehicles increases Sandown’s group stock to more than 700 cars. Behind the scenes, a state-of-the-art eight-bay workshop is fully-equipped to undertake every aspect of Mercedes-Benz and smart servicing, and repairs.

The majority of Mercedes-Benz of Newbury’s existing 44-strong workforce will remain with the business, which will be overseen by a new general manager, Keith Jackman, who has been a member of our senior management team for many years and previously headed up its Basingstoke and Guildford sites.

“Newbury is a fantastic operation and I look forward to working alongside a very knowledgeable and experienced team that has already established an outstanding reputation for customer service and is committed to maintaining this,” said Jackman. “With Mercedes-Benz accelerating its journey towards CO₂ neutrality in 2021 with the unveiling of four new Mercedes-EQ all-electric models as well as the further expansion of the ever-growing family of plug-in hybrid cars, I have every confidence that Mercedes-Benz of Newbury’s best years lie ahead.”