11:46 am, June 25, 2021
Sytner’s gigantic Jaguar Land Rover dealership has already made a profit this year as it ramps up sales from the flagship site.
The huge Guy Salmon showroom is spread over five floors in Sunbury-upon-Thames, south west London, and is one of the most impressive dealerships in Europe.
Car Dealer has been given a tour of the incredible facility for a special video – which you can watch above – by head of business David Edwards.
In it, he shows us around the two-acre site that stores more than 400 new and used cars and services hundreds of vehicles every month.
Opened in the middle of last year, the dealership represents a £25m investment by the second most profitable dealer group in the UK.
The ‘statement site’, as Jaguar Land Rover likes to call it, is only the second globally to open after one in Germany and is certainly impressive.
Inside the front doors, the showroom opens up to reveal a huge airport style seating area and the site’s showpiece ‘living wall’ – a plant filled structure that dominates the centre of the site.
Edwards explains how the dealership has tucked away its sales staff from view to give customers a more relaxed atmosphere.
On the second floor, nearly 100 used cars are displayed under bright lights where customers can browse in the same luxurious surroundings as the new car buyers downstairs.
The dealership feels more department store than car dealer, with thousands of pounds worth of accessories laid out for sale among the comfortable seating areas for waiting clients.
Here you can pick up a Jaguar wallet or Land Rover coat along with your new Defender.
A drive-in service centre has three lanes which lets customers pull inside the building, valet parking style, when they arrive for a service.
There they are met by the Guy Salmon aftersales team who whisk their car up into the building while the customers enjoy a coffee from the cafe nestled behind reception.
Upstairs on the second floor is a huge service department that rattles through MOTs and repair work.
Cars are brought up in a lift or driven up around the multi storey car park style entrance at the back that links the site’s floors.
The scale of the operation is huge with 26 work bays and two MOT stations all kept busy.
On the top two floors is even more parking with space for hundreds of new and used models.
Edwards said: ‘We are delighted that four months in we’ve made the best part of a million pounds. That feels pretty good to me.’
Elsewhere customers can specify Range Rovers in the special SV, or special vehicles, area where one model has a whopping £220,000 price tag.
The Sytner site has certainly been a feather in the cap for the dealer group and the manufacturer in the UK.
Jaguar Land Rover managing director Rawdon Glover said: ‘The new Jaguar Land Rover statement site represents a significant addition to our UK retailer network.
‘With our partners at Guy Salmon we are offering a new experience for customers and have created an outstanding retail environment that uses beautiful design and the latest technology to reduce environmental impact and provide the local community with jobs and services.’
Watch our exclusive video above to see the full scale of the huge site and here how boss Edwards has been settling in to his new home.
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