MERIDIAN Motor Group is to open a second Hyundai dealership in Greater Manchester.
The new acquisition will be trading as Vantage Hyundai Oldham. It’ll create up to 25 jobs and is expected to sell 800 new and used cars each year, contributing an additional £10m to the Meridian Motor Group turnover.
Meridian purchased the site of a former car dealership at St Mary’s Way in Oldham for an undisclosed figure and following a £350,000 refit. The new dealership is expected to open in October 2013.
The property purchase is Meridian’s eighth deal in ten weeks as the business looks to increase its presence in existing territories, while expanding into new markets.
Andrew Mallory, operations director for Vantage, said: ‘This expansion will significantly strengthen our presence in Manchester, providing customers in places like Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside the convenience of a Hyundai centre near them. It’s also great to be able to bring this site back to use again after years of being derelict and to be able to create new jobs.
‘We opened our first dealership in Salford two years ago and since then we’ve had a really positive response from customers, so much so, that it now makes sense to open a second dealership in Manchester to enable the business to continue to grow.
‘We are still the only Hyundai dealership in the area and in Hyundai we have a manufacturer that has similar ambitions to match our own to grow their national footprint.’
The site was previously home to a Volvo car dealership. However following the closure of the business five years ago, the site has been left unused.
Meridian is based in Harrogate, north Yorkshire and after a period of significant growth, now employs more than 350 people at 14 dealerships across Yorkshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, the Lake District and the west Midlands.
