9:06 am, December 3, 2025
Luscombe Motors is to expand its business with an Omoda and Jaecoo franchise, its managing director has exclusively told the Car Dealer Podcast.
Speaking on the weekly show – which you can watch above or listen to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms – Sam Luscombe revealed the move, which marks the family-run group’s first new brand partnership in five years.
The Leeds-based firm is best known for its hugely successful Suzuki operation. It added MG to its business in 2020 and will now add Omoda and Jaecoo from early 2026.
It will repurpose a showroom it has rented out to a hot tub business on its site to create the Omoda and Jaecoo showroom.
Luscombe said: ‘Over the past few years, franchise opportunities have come and gone. A lot of [our] success has been about being with the right franchise at the right time, and you can see that with other businesses who have backed the right horse at the right time.’
The expansion won’t extend beyond the firm’s current site, which important, said Luscombe.
‘We’ve had opportunities to grow in the past,’ he explained, ‘but, once you take it off one site those challenges and headaches don’t half multiply.
‘The strategy has been that we’re fortunate enough to have a big enough site here in Leeds, which we can grow.’
The move is driven by opportunity rather than necessity.
‘We weren’t desperate. It wasn’t a case that we needed to fill [the hot tub showroom immediately,’ he said. ‘Instead, it was a case of is there an opportunity that is sizeable enough and that can pay for the rates, and can suddenly give us something else to the site.’
He added: ‘What really attracted us to Omoda and Jaecoo was the fact that it’s not an EV-only brand,’ he said, adding that demand for electrified but familiar powertrains is rising.
‘The growth that they’re seeing in the PHEV market and the super hybrid systems is probably more indicative of the direction of travel for the general consumer.’
Luscombe believes these cars offer a ‘great stepping stone’ for customers who ‘know they need to do something’ but aren’t ready to leap straight from petrol to battery electric.
The business case is supported by product appeal and value. Luscombe said Omoda and Jaecoo’s line-up ‘looks good, it’s well finished, it’s got a lot of tech and it comes in at a great price.’
Sam Luscombe was speaking just a few weeks after the business published its accounts for the year ended May 31, 2025.
The figures showed a record year of trading, with revenue coming to £64.7m (up from the previous year’s £63.9m) and pre-tax profit more than doubling to £2.6m.
In the podcast, Luscombe explained more about the company’s financial performance, and how the business is transitioning from founder Robin Luscombe handing the reigns to Sam.
You can watch the full podcast above, or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all good podcast platforms.
