9:53 am, April 11, 2024
Used car dealer Peter Waddell has vowed to take High Court action after being ousted as a director of the car supermarket group he founded.
Big Motoring World holding company Bapchild Motoring World (Kent) Limited issued a termination notice on Companies House yesterday (Apr 10) to say that Waddell had been removed as a director that day.
A spokesperson from Big Motoring World told Car Dealer today: ‘We confirm that Peter has left the board of Big Motoring World.’
Waddell has been taking a ‘leave of absence’ since March 8 from the car dealership group he has built over the past 40 years.
He is believed to have been pushed out of the business a month ago, but no reasons were given for his departure.
Waddell sold a third of Big Motoring World to private equity backer Freshstream in April 2022. The relationship between the two parties is said to have soured since.
Car Dealer learnt on March 8 – the day after Waddell appeared as a headline interviewee at our Car Dealer Live conference in Gaydon – that staff at Big Motoring World had been told of immediate changes to the business.
A spokesperson said Waddell had taken ‘a leave of absence’ and executive chairman Laurence Vaughan would be taking on his responsibilities on an interim basis.
Waddell later called the statement of his leave of absence ‘a load of b******s’.
He told Car Dealer today that he is now planning to sue, saying: ‘I own 62% of the business. We will be taking Freshstream to the High Court and we will let the judge decide.
‘They are trying to take my company away from me – it’s robbery. I have built up this business over 40 years and it’s robbery.’
Freshstream has also been approached for comment.
Waddell began his business in 1986 and since then it has grown to become one of the UK’s largest car supermarkets. Last year, he bought two Available Cars sites and before that bought SW Car Supermarkets. In the past five years he has expanded it to eight sites, opening a new dealership in Wimbledon recently.
Additional reporting by John Bowman
