Car and motorhome business picks up more awards and drives growth with investment

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 28 January 2019

An award-winning car and motorhome dealer based near Derby has acquired more premises and is investing further as part of its growth plans.

Geoff Cox, based at Derby Road, Denby, is a family firm established 52 years ago, which has two divisions selling and servicing cars and the growing motorhome/leisure market.

It has just bought a disused car showroom at Marehay Garage, Derby Road, Marehay, Ripley, a short distance away. The existing Marehay Garage Services is not affected and continues as a Vauxhall service centre.

The site owners had planned to sell the site of the empty building for housing, but Geoff Cox stepped in and the company plans to redevelop it to a showroom for selling motorhomes.

The building has been empty for more than two years and renovation will help improve the gateway to Ripley.

Neil Cox, managing director of Geoff Cox, said that the site owners Jackie and David Hunt were delighted with the sale because it continued an automotive connection with the site.

The new base will open and be fully operational in March, replacing one which has been trading from Denby Pottery Village for three years.

Geoff Cox will be investing nearly £300,000 in the new centre,  including facilities for motorhome servicing.

The existing motorhome workshop at Denby will move to Marehay, releasing that land for used car sales.

“We have had such growth in both divisions over the last four years that we have outgrown the facilities,” said Neil.

“The operation at Marehay will mean we can expand the motorhome business and use the vacated land at Denby for the used car business.

“This is all part-of the long-term growth and investment plan from four years ago which is now coming to fruition.”

In that time turnover has increased from £6m - £15m and and employees numbers have doubled to 24.

“We are delighted that youngsters we took on as apprentices have developed their skills and helped contribute to the company's growth,” added Neil.

Last year Geoff Cox became a brand ambassador for Adria motorhomes in recognition of it being the company's number one dealer for the last seven years. Last year Geoff Cox achieved £4.5m of sales on new Adria motorhomes alone.

For the second year running it has picked up a gold award for customer service from Practical Motorhome magazine and the Camping and Caravan Club.

As for cars, the company has now been associated with Subaru for two years and won the company's new dealer award.

“This is recognition of the hard work we have put in in the last year alone,” said Neil.

This included a re-structuring of the car sales business with more staff and specialised training for engineers, all of which led to a 40 per cent upsurge in the car division last year and led to the company becoming new and used car selling site Auto Trader's best performing retailer.

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