New owner reopens car dealer's site (From Daily Echo)

Romsey and Bridport sites of collapsed Southgate Motor Group reopened

1:10pm Tuesday 24th January 2012 in Romsey By Matt Smith, Politics and business reporter

Two of the former sites of a collapsed car dealer have been reopened under new owners.

Administrators of the Southgate Motor Group, which crashed in November, have negotiated the reopening of its Romsey and Bridport sites.

The £40m turnover group, which had seven Peugeot, Mitsubishi and Subaru franchises across Hampshire and Dorset, collapsed in November – another victim of the economic slowdown. More than 100 staff were made redundant.

Southgate’s former Romsey site, which sold Peugeot and Mitsubishi cars, has re-opened as a Peugeot dealership after the landlord agreed terms with Snows Motor Group, administrators Begbies Traynor said.

It preserves one of the oldest Peugeot dealerships in the UK, creating 25 jobs.

Julie Palmer, from Begbies Traynor, said: “This will be good news for the many Peugeot owners who have been in contact with the administrators.”

A spokesman for Snows said it had already taken on 12 ex-Southgate staff from across its various branches and may take on more.

Ms Palmer said the Bridport site had also re-opened as a Mitsubishi dealership after Motorwell Ltd agreed a new lease with the landlord and bought the assets on the site. Several of the former Southgate employees have been employed by Motorwell.

No new buyers had yet been found for Southgate’s other former dealerships in Southampton, Winchester, Andover, Poole, and Blandford.

The family-run group, which was founded in 1996, had been an “extremely well-run company”, according to the administrators, but fell victim to the slump in the car market.