Newbury: Ridgeway Group appoints new finance director

Ridgeway Group has appointed Daniel Taylor to the new position of finance director. Taylor is a chartered accountant (ACA) and was previously a partner with Grant Thornton. 

With over 15 years’ experience of the automotive sector on both the retailer and manufacturer sides, he is a regular speaker at automotive seminars and contributes to many industry publications.

He studied economics at Leeds University before moving on to train as a chartered accountant with Grant Thornton, qualifying in 2000. From there he went on to qualify as an insolvency practitioner in 2003.

Taylor has spent the majority of his career at Grant Thornton working in the automotive sector, and has led the firm's national automotive team for the past three years. His experience includes a broad range of work across the sector, working with suppliers, manufacturers and retailers, with a focus on transactional advisory work, business reviews, performance improvement and optimisation, and solvent and insolvent restructuring. His experience has allowed him to develop relationships with a broad base of sector stakeholders across the automotive value chain.

John O’Hanlon, Ridgeway’s CEO, commented: “Dan’s experience of the sector, Ridgeway’s brand partners and Ridgeway’s funders is unrivalled and will allow Ridgeway to move up another gear. He firmly fits with our ambitions to be the best and he is very much relishing the opportunity of working with all of us in formulating and driving our strategy for the next five years and beyond.”

Based across the middle and south of England, with its registered office in Newbury, the Ridgeway Group’s story has been one of continual growth and expansion. It is now ranked among the top 20 largest motor retail groups in the UK and listed 91st on the latest Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 league table of Britain's leading mid-market private companies.