DORSET’S long-established Westover Group of car showrooms has been sold to the Hendy Group in a deal that creates one of the biggest dealership networks in the country.

The sale of the 96-year-old business, for an undisclosed sum, creates a company with 2,000 staff and a turnover of £1billion.

The Westover name is staying for the “foreseeable” future and no job cuts are planned, but chairman Peter Wood is standing down.

Paul Hendy, chief executive of the Eastleigh-based Hendy Group, said Westover was a “highly successful” company.

He told the Daily Echo: “They’re a growing business and we’re a growing business.

“We’ve known Westover for years. I’m a local lad – we live in the area. I know it’s a fantastic business. For the two businesses to come together is going to create something special.”

Westover has 28 locations in Dorset and Wiltshire, representing 15 manufacturers including Nissan, Toyota, Fiat, Hyundai, Alfa Romeo and Jaguar Land Rover.

Its acquisition means the Hendy group has 26 franchises and operates from 83 outlets, with a Ferndown site to open this year.

Hendy had a Bournemouth operation selling Fords from 1913-98 and Mr Hendy is a Wimborne resident.

“For us, it’s a bit like coming home,” he said.

He said customers should not notice a major difference on day one. “From a customer experience point of view, I’d like to think Westover will carry on giving great customer service because that’s what they do and we hope that will continue,” he said.

“They’re a great business. That’s because they’ve got great people,” he added.

Asked if the company would rebrand the Westover sites as Hendy, he said: “We may in the future. It’s not our number one priority. That’s to get everybody comfortable and relaxed.”

Westover chairman Peter Wood said:“After more than 50 years in the motor industry I have decided that it is time to bow out. Westover has been my passion now for more than 40 years and to find a suitable company to hand it over to which has the same ethos of looking after its staff and customers has not been easy.

“We believe that in Hendy we have found that, and from the beginning of my discussions with Paul Hendy it became clear that the manner and way we operate our businesses is very similar.

“It has been a long and interesting journey with Westover, starting as sales director in the mid-70s though to managing director in 1979 then leading a management buy-out in 1984. At that stage Westover was two branches with Austin Rover and 80 employees.

“I am very proud of what the managers and staff, many of whom are still with Westover Group, have achieved in the past 40 years.”

Carol Elliott, partner at Bournemouth law firm Steele Raymond, managed the property aspects of the transaction for Westover Holdings Limited.

THE Westover Group was established in 1923 and owes its name to the site it once occupied on Bournemouth’s Westover Road.

For much of its lifetime, it was well-known as the local face of the Morris marque. Later, it was known as a Rover dealer.

Today, it is at 28 locations, from Corfe Mullen to Salisbury, with a cluster of sites in Bournemouth, Poole and in Christchurch, where it recently opened a £15m Jaguar Land Rover showroom in Barrack Road.

It sells Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Dacia, Fiat, Hyundai, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Lotus, Nissan, Renault, Skoda and Toyota.

Departing chairman Peter Wood said: “It has been a long and interesting journey with Westover, starting as sales director in the mid-70s though to managing director in 1979 then leading a management buy-out in 1984. At that stage Westover was two branches with Austin Rover and 80 employees. I am very proud of what the managers and staff, many of whom are still with Westover Group, have achieved in the past 40 years.”

The history of Hendy began with the opening of a bicycle store in Southampton in 1869, owned by FA Hendy. It began selling Fords in Bournemouth 1913 and continued until 1998.