Progress on dealers against William Wang's July 2012 plans

http://www.mguk.org/t957-july-2012-william-wang-planning-150-outlets

(Interview with William Wang, July 2012)

Priority open points for the brand include Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Leicester, Oxford, Swindon, London and the along the south coast from Southampton along through Devon and down to Cornwall. (all those places remain dealerless)

In Feb 2014:

Edinburgh: vacancy
Glasgow: vacancy
Liverpool: vacancy
Manchester: vacancy
Leicester: Bishop and Bishop announced 20 February
Oxford: vacancy
Swindon: CarShop announced 29 January
London: Barnes MG announced 18 February (but still only sales dealership inside M25, even if another is appointed in North London - here MG are at least a dozen short, ~40 needed for the same ratio to population as Lincolnshire though geographically it will be fewer!).

"along the south coast from Southampton along through Devon and down to Cornwall": vacancy upon vacancy. Now nothing between Brighton and Plymouth, not Christchurch, not Budleigh Salterton.


No mention back in 2012 of Northern Ireland (was there a dealer then?), a bigger market than Wales; of north Wales; or of anywhere else in Scotland...

From today's press release:

The marque's objective this year is to continue steady growth, with the aim of recruiting a total of 80 retailers by the end of 2014.

is that about 40 new ones?

I believe there is still only one dealer in Scotland, which is a shame as it is away from the bigger cities.

Jobbybob wrote:I believe there is still only one dealer in Scotland, which is a shame as it is away from the bigger cities.

MG Motor UK currently only sell in the UK and have plans for RHD EU countries. If Scotland decides to leave the UK and the EU then presumably you will loose that dealer as well! They are probably waiting to see what Scotland decides to do before either closing the dealer or opening some more...

Wonder if Scotland will stay RHD   

Windy wrote:

Jobbybob wrote:I believe there is still only one dealer in Scotland, which is a shame as it is away from the bigger cities.

MG Motor UK currently only sell in the UK and have plans for RHD EU countries. If Scotland decides to leave the UK and the EU then presumably you will loose that dealer as well!  They are probably waiting to see what Scotland decides to do before either closing the dealer or opening some more...

Wonder if Scotland will stay RHD   

you will note Glasgow and Edinburgh on that list. (though not delivered) there is nothing in Northern Ireland now.

LHD Scotland is an idea - they wanted to be more like Iceland and they certainly got the failed banks. Sweden switched in 1964!

patpending wrote: there is nothing in Northern Ireland now.

No dealer in the Isle of Man either. The Isle of Man is an independent country that is not in the UK or EU and has it's own currency so is similar to Scotland after a yes vote.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote: there is nothing in Northern Ireland now.

No dealer in the Isle of Man either.  The Isle of Man is an independent country that is not in the UK or EU and has it's own currency so is similar to Scotland after a yes vote.

The IoM is a Crown dependency. Nothing in the Channel Islands either, type in "Guernsey" and get Tolleys in Colchester, type in "St. Helier" and get Barnes! (St. Helier , Sutton). St. Peter Port gets you Ryde IoW! Obvious MG territory for 6 and 3, you'd have thought.

patpending wrote:The IoM is a Crown dependency.

Yes, I think it still counts as an independent country though since the Crown is not a country. It does mean that the IoM shares the Royal Air Force etc. (which don't belong to the UK.)

It's all a bit complicated, didn't Scotland's independents want to keep the Queen on their new bank notes too?

Pat, i think you will find that their is a MG dealer on Guernsey.

It is Carrus Automotive,

Landes,du Marche Garage Vale,

Guernsey.

GY6 8DJ.

Unless of course it has closed.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote: there is nothing in Northern Ireland now.

No dealer in the Isle of Man either.  The Isle of Man is an independent country that is not in the UK or EU and has it's own currency so is similar to Scotland after a yes vote.

Actually, there is a big difference between the Isle of Man and Scotland after a yes vote - even though IoM is not in the EU, Manxmen have a EU passport which Scotsmen will loose if they vote yes!

The 'if' they vote yes is something of a big if, based on much of the polling evidence.

adaveabbott wrote:Pat, i think you will find that their is a MG dealer on Guernsey.

It is Carrus Automotive,

Landes,du Marche Garage Vale,

Guernsey.

GY6 8DJ.

Unless of course it has closed.

Using the dealer locator on mg.co.uk - input "St. Peter Port" and get Westridge IoW (only 49 miles away!) which is what I was using.

However, on http://www.carrus.gg/carrus/46-welcome-to-carrus, I see an MG3! Worth following up tomorrow - can MG Motor really have left them off by mistake? There is supposed to be a link from this photo (from "FEB" per link!) but it is broken.

(I've been wrestling to get this photo to look right when downsizing it, I'll leave it at that. Is this their showroom? They certainly seem to be expecting to sell MG3... http://www.carrus.gg/carrus/component/content/article?id=158)

patpending wrote:Using the dealer locator on mg.co.uk...

Maybe it's only a UK dealer locator?

There doesn't seem to be a www.mg.co.gg though.

Check out the full dealer list on the MG site: http://mg.co.uk/dealers/?view_all=1

Carrus are listed on that...

Jobbybob wrote:Check out the full dealer list on the MG site: http://mg.co.uk/dealers/?view_all=1

Carrus are listed on that...

Thank you, it must just be a glitch on the "finder" then.

It might be time to revisit that full dealer list.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote: there is nothing in Northern Ireland now.

No dealer in the Isle of Man either.  The Isle of Man is an independent country that is not in the UK or EU and has it's own currency so is similar to Scotland after a yes vote.

There seems to be a problem with the dealer finder, there is a dealer in Douglas!

http://www.mylchreests.com/

EDIT That's two dealers we missed, and while I "know" there's one in Sittingbourne, they no longer even do aftersales! I posted the list of dealers (44 as at 26/2/14) here:

http://www.mguk.org/t1185-mg-dealer-list-as-at-end-february#8652

patpending wrote:
There seems to be a problem with the dealer finder, there is a dealer in Douglas!

http://www.mylchreests.com/

EDIT That's two dealers we missed, and while I "know" there's one in Sittingbourne, they no longer even do aftersales! I posted the list of dealers (44 as at 26/2/14) here:

http://www.mguk.org/t1185-mg-dealer-list-as-at-end-february#8652

They do export outside the UK then, maybe Scotland has a chance even with a yes vote, although it probably depends on how much import tax the new government charges. (Got to pay for the new Ukraine style presidential palace somehow!)

patpending wrote:http://www.mguk.org/t957-july-2012-william-wang-planning-150-outlets

(Interview with William Wang, July 2012)

Priority open points for the brand include Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Leicester, Oxford, Swindon, London and the along the south coast from Southampton along through Devon and down to Cornwall. (all those places remain dealerless)

In Feb 2014:

Edinburgh: vacancy
Glasgow: vacancy
Liverpool: vacancy
Manchester: vacancy
Leicester: Bishop and Bishop announced 20 February
Oxford: vacancy
Swindon: CarShop announced 29 January
London: Barnes MG announced 18 February (but still only sales dealership inside M25, even if another is appointed in North London - here MG are at least a dozen short, ~40 needed for the same ratio to population as Lincolnshire though geographically it will be fewer!).

"along the south coast from Southampton along through Devon and down to Cornwall": vacancy upon vacancy. Now nothing between Brighton and Plymouth, not Christchurch, not Budleigh Salterton.


No mention back in 2012 of Northern Ireland (was there a dealer then?), a bigger market than Wales; of north Wales; or of anywhere else in Scotland...

Update March 2015:

Edinburgh: vacancy still
Glasgow: Phoenix Linwood (but more needed!)
Liverpool: vacancy still
Manchester: Oldham (but more needed!)
Leicester: Bishop and Bishop
Oxford: County Motors Bicester
Swindon: CarShop
London: Barnes MG (but more needed!)

Per today's press release:

the firm’s franchise development team have created a ‘hot spot’ list of key cities and towns where MG dealers are urgently needed.
The ‘hot spots’ include:

• Nottingham
  
• Leeds
  
• Edinburgh
  
• Swansea
  
• Lisburn
  

The top 30 MG open ‘hot spots’ are:

Aberdeen	Bradford
Crawley	Derby
Durham	Edinburgh
Epsom	Harlow
Hemel Hempstead	Huddersfield
Kilmarnock	Kirkcaldy
Leeds	Lisburn
Liverpool	London North East
London North West	London South
London South East	Milton Keynes
Motherwell	Nottingham
Slough	Southampton
Stockport	Sutton Coldfield
Swansea	Warrington
Wirral	Worcester

One of the recent press releases quoted Matthew Cheyne as target now 70 by end 2015 (not 100) or around a further eight this year after Falkirk and Skegness.

However, if they have "recently" (20 May) announced they want 30 more, does that mean "just the hotlist"? I'm not sure any announcement we have had has been in a target location. Falkirk is evidently still a long way from Edinburgh - the only place it is near is Stirling!

patpending wrote:Per today's press release:

the firm’s franchise development team have created a ‘hot spot’ list of key cities and towns where MG dealers are urgently needed.
The ‘hot spots’ include:

• Nottingham
  
• Leeds
  
• Edinburgh
  
• Swansea
  
• Lisburn
  

The top 30 MG open ‘hot spots’ are:

Aberdeen	Bradford
Crawley	Derby
Durham	Edinburgh
Epsom	Harlow
Hemel Hempstead	Huddersfield
Kilmarnock	Kirkcaldy
Leeds	Lisburn
Liverpool	London North East
London North West	London South
London South East	Milton Keynes
Motherwell	Nottingham
Slough	Southampton
Stockport	Sutton Coldfield
Swansea	Warrington
Wirral	Worcester

Now that dealers have been announced one year later for Bradford, Epsom and Warrington, it's worth revisiting the list. Although not one dealer has been added to the list in over a year, all three dealers revealed at end March 2016 were in Hotspots.


The top 30 MG open ‘hot spots’ are:

Aberdeen OPEN	Bradford STANLEY CARS BD1
Crawley OPEN	Derby OPEN
Durham OPEN (Newcastle/Middlesbrough)	Edinburgh OPEN (Falkirk)
Epsom BELMONT GARAGE TATTENHAM CORNER KT18	Harlow OPEN
Hemel Hempstead OPEN	Huddersfield OPEN
Kilmarnock OPEN	Kirkcaldy OPEN
Leeds OPEN (Bradford)	Lisburn OPEN (Downpatrick/Newtownabbey)
Liverpool OPEN	London North East OPEN
London North West OPEN	London South OPEN
London South East OPEN (Gravesend)	Milton Keynes OPEN
Motherwell OPEN	Nottingham OPEN
Slough OPEN	Southampton OPEN (Havant)
Stockport OPEN	Sutton Coldfield OPEN
Swansea OPEN	Warrington WARRINGTON MG WA2
Wirral OPEN	Worcester OPEN

19 May 2015:

Aberdeen OPEN	Bradford pending
Crawley OPEN	Derby OPEN
Durham OPEN (Newcastle/Middlesbrough)	Edinburgh OPEN (Falkirk)
Epsom BG2 now selling	Harlow OPEN
Hemel Hempstead OPEN	Huddersfield OPEN
Kilmarnock Prestwick pending	Kirkcaldy OPEN
Leeds OPEN (Bradford)	Lisburn OPEN (Downpatrick/Newtownabbey)
Liverpool OPEN	London North East OPEN
London North West OPEN	London South OPEN
London South East OPEN (Gravesend)	Milton Keynes OPEN
Motherwell OPEN	Nottingham OPEN
Slough OPEN	Southampton OPEN (Havant)
Stockport OPEN	Sutton Coldfield OPEN
Swansea OPEN	Warrington pending
Wirral OPEN	Worcester OPEN

I also note a new target for end 2016: "our total outlets rising from 65 to 90 by the end of this year. " (Matthew Cheyne)

http://www.businesscar.co.uk/news/2016/mg-takes-considered-fleet-steps

Prediction now repeated as 90 by end 2016 and 100-110 by end 2017. The article quotes dealers as 78 now, but even with pendings I make it 73.

http://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/mg-add-30-dealers-meet-ambitious-uk-growth-target-15-06-2016

17 in 6½ months is about three dealers a month!

Another take on the same numbers with a statement that the small dealerships that can make a success out of challenger brands are being taken over:

Cheyne said that brands such as Subaru, Suzuki and MG were fishing in “an ever-smaller pool” for small retailers with strong regional reputations.

Despite this, he admitted that he was content with the growth of an MG network which will number 78 franchised dealerships by the end August and 90 by the end of the year.

Speaking to AM at the launch of the brand’s new GS SUV last week, Cheyne said: “We are careful to appoint retailers who are not unduly distracted by other high volume brands because they need to go out and sell the MG brand.”

http://www.am-online.com/news/market-insight/2016/06/23/consolidation-could-spell-trouble-for-emerging-brands-says-mg-s-matthew-cheyne

IIRC the 78 by end August include 6 we don't formally know about. Dave? Mid-Cornwall Cars of Roche and Charles Warner of Gainsborough both have MG signage - Roche have an MG3 courtesy car - but are not in MG Motor's list of dealers.

70 sales dealers on the MG website now (10.10.16) - but sadly it looks like K and R in Taunton have stopped , joining SMC in Plymouth who left recently making the south west still quite a tough area for MG to retain dealers.