8:17 am, July 3, 2026
Used car supermarket group Fords of Winsford (FOW) has announced record sales for the first half of 2026.
The retailer, which operates two sites in the north of England, has reported volume growth of 9.4% in the six months to the end of June, shifting a record-breaking 7,111 units.
Bosses say the achievement has come despite significant market challenges and brings the firm’s medium-term aim of selling 15,000 units closer to being a reality.
Among the difficulties have been volatile fuel and energy prices and heatwave conditions across bank holiday weekends and month ends.
In response, FOW has introduced a revised marketing strategy to ‘make money work harder rather than just accept inevitable annual price rises’.
Bosses say the new approach has resulted in savings of around 250,000, without any discernible drop in leads or enquiries.
Reflecting on the first six months of the year, Kevin Cartwright general manager of FOW Group, said: ‘A huge well done and thank you to everyone within team FOW.
‘As our results improve, our staff retention rates also improve as people enjoy being associated with perceived success.
‘Making FOW an attractive place of employment is massively important to us.’
Looking forward, the firm says it is now looking to utilise AI technology to increase speed and efficiencies.
The business is also funding a new vehicle preparation IT system upgrade with a view to introducing dynamic scheduling.
Despite the recent success, bosses remain wary that Q3 was the firm’s weakest period last year. However, as long as the market remains stable, they are backing the firm to continue improving over the coming months.
‘As a business we have a clear plan of who we want to be and when we want things to happen,’ Cartwright added.
‘The volume growth protects the business from the worst of the well documented increased costs of doing business and also allows us via economy of scale to try new things and be innovative rather than follow the crowd.’
