One of the leading motor names in the South has acquired a single-site dealership selling Abarth, Fiat, Mazda and Peugeot marques in Portsmouth.
Perrys Portsmouth Fiat, Perrys Portsmouth Mazda and Perrys Portsmouth Peugeot, by the A27 in Walton Road, Farlington, was bought for an undisclosed sum by independent Snows.
The dealership has been rebranded Snows Fiat Portsmouth, Snows Mazda Portsmouth and Snows Peugeot Portsmouth and extends Snows’ customer offering in Hampshire.
In a new addition, Abarth, the performance hatch arm of the Fiat marque, is being brought to the site, as Snows Abarth Portsmouth, to complement the Fiat offering.
Abarth models include the Abarth 595, a trend-setting city car, and the 695 Biposto – tagged as the world’s smallest supercar with a 1.4-litre turbo-charged petrol engine and a top speed of 143mph. Biposto is Italian for two-seater.
Stephen Snow, Snows Group Chairman, said: “This is another strategic acquisition for the business, further strengthening our offering to discerning customers in the Portsmouth region and creating economies of scale in a highly competitive market.
“We already represent Fiat in Southampton, the Isle of Wight and Sarisbury Green, near Fareham, and it is great to be able to do the same in the great city of Portsmouth.
“Owning the Mazda franchise in Portsmouth complements the Mazda franchise we acquired in Chichester, West Sussex, at the start of this year and subsequently rebranded Snows Mazda Chichester.
“Furthermore, we’re able to fly the Peugeot flag here as well, dovetailing with our other Peugeot dealerships in Basingstoke, Chichester, Newbury and Romsey.”
Stephen added: “We’ve always wanted to expand our trading operations in Portsmouth, where we already successfully operate BMW, MINI, SEAT and Toyota dealerships, and the ideal opportunity came through the long-established and well respected Perrys Group.”
Neil McCue, Group Board Director, Snows, said: “The addition of this business to the Group on October 1st further demonstrates the on-going strength of our partnership with these manufacturers whom we have enjoyed success with, most recently as a result of acquisitions with Fiat Sarisbury Green and Mazda/Peugeot Chichester within the last year.
“We warmly welcome Perrys staff to Snows and look forward to meeting customers at our new Abarth, Fiat, Mazda and Peugeot site in Farlington, Portsmouth. Now representing eight brands, the acquisition makes us Portsmouth’s largest dealer group.”
The brands are Abarth, BMW, Fiat, Mazda, MINI, Peugeot, SEAT and Toyota.
Snows, representing 18 marques overall, operates in Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Somerset, Surrey, West Sussex and Wiltshire.
A number of employees at Perrys have been transferred to Snows, which employs more than 835 people and is headquartered in Southampton.
Snows has a turnover of more than £310 million and is 50th in the Automotive Management 100, which lists the largest 100 UK automotive retail groups in the UK.
Perrys Group is listed 26th, with a turnover of £614m-plus.
With the new franchise in Portsmouth, Snows has a total of 49 franchised dealerships, 11 specialist used vehicle outlets, called Too Good to Auction, five manufacturer-approved repair centres and a specialist Accident Repair Centre.
