Aylesbury's Steer acquires Portsmouth's Apollo Group

Aylesbury automotive group Steer continue to expand through the acquisition of Portsmouth's Apollo Motor Group and Balgores Motor Group.

This pair of acquisitions adds 32 repair locations, £90 million of turnover (combined), and 700 Staff into the existing Steers network. According to Steers, plans are already in place to continue this expansion with a number of new sites planned over the second half of the year.

20 of the 32 sites were owned by Portsmouth-based Apollo Motor Group, founded in 1985 by Graham and Tracy Eyles. The business has grown to become nationally recognised and won numerous awards.

Graham and Tracy said “We’re very proud of what we’ve built at Apollo and when we decided it was time to let someone else take on the baton it was clear that Richard and the team at Steer were the obvious choice to do that. We’d like to thank all our colleagues, customers and partners over the years who have helped us along the way”.

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Balgores Motors was founded in 1982 by owner Paul Austin. Based out of Essex, the business has grown into 12 sites with a heavy bias towards prestige Vehicle Manufacturer approvals.

Chief executive of Steer Automotive Group Richard Steer said:  “I have known Graham, Tracy and Paul for many years and have watched the successful development of their businesses into the superb operations they are today.

''We have a clear focus on acquiring strong well established businesses that support our growth strategy and when the opportunity presented itself we jumped at the chance to add Apollo and Balgores to our operations. I’d like to personally thank Graham, Tracy and Paul for trusting us with the next chapter in the development of their companies. We are very excited about the prospects and look forward to working with the incumbent management teams on the journey ahead”.

Apollo Motors Group and Balgores Motors take the existing Steer portfolio to 93 repair locations and over 2,200 colleagues.

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