FOLLOWING its latest acquisition of Ridgeway Group, Marshall Motor Holdings has announced changes in senior management responsibilities.
Jon Head, formerly Ridgeway’s operations director, will take up the newly created role of commercial director for the enlarged Marshall group. The role will include responsibility for aftersales development, F&I, CRM, marketing and purchasing.
Meanwhile, Jamie Crowther, Marshall’s operations director, will assume operational responsibility for the enlarged group with the Marshall and Ridgeway operational directors reporting directly to him.
Finally, Dan Taylor, Ridgeway’s finance director, will continue in his current role, reporting to Mark Raban, Marshall’s CFO, and will assist CEO Daksh Gupta with the integration of the Ridgeway businesses.
Gupta said: ‘We are very fortunate to have two exceptional Operations Directors in Jon Head in Ridgeway and Jamie Crowther in Marshall. Currently, they both have day to day responsibility for operational and commercial aspects of their respective businesses. In light of the scale of the enlarged group, we have assessed the best way to lead the business to set ourselves up for continued success.
‘We believe it is important we bring the two teams together; one of the attractions of doing so is the opportunity to share best practice across the enlarged group because together we are stronger! Jamie and Jon will report direct to me but clearly given how important their two roles are, we will be working very closely together.’
The £106.9m deal sees Marshall move from being the 10th to the seventh largest motor dealer group in the UK and has been hailed by Gupta as being ‘truly transformational’ for his company.
Ridgeway, the multi-franchise dealer group, which operates across swathes of southern England, represents 12 brands across 30 franchised dealerships. Its manufacturer partners include Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Mini and Skoda.
MORE: New car market steady in May as growth remains stable
MORE: Vauxhall registrations down by a fifth as fires scandal rumbles on
MORE: New solar farm switched on at Nissan’s Sunderland plant
On SuperUnleaded.com: Rally Driver Crashes, Captures More Of It Than He Expected
