Arnold Clark is a car dealer based in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. , the company has over 200 dealerships across the United Kingdom, and is one of the largest car dealerships in Europe. Annually, Arnold Clark sells in excess of 300,000 vehicles, and sells new vehicles from over 30 international countries.

History

Founding and early history

The company was founded by Arnold Clark, who opened his first showroom in 1954 in Park Road in

. In 1963, Arnold Clark Finance was launched. In the 1960s the company began rental vehicles and in 1968 took over Grant, Melrose and Tennant giving the company an accident repair centre. Clark took over other motor businesses such as the Glasgow dealership McHarg, Rennie and Lindsay. Clark's biggest branch was gained through the takeover of Ross of Lochrin in Edinburgh. By 1989, there were twenty two Arnold Clark branches across Central Scotland and one in England. The rental part of the business now had 1400 rental cars and 350 light commercial vehicles. The company also had vehicle contract hire operations in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. In December 1989, he gained a further 13 dealerships in the North East of Scotland, with the purchase of ''Ron Hutcheson Motors Ltd''. This took the number of people employed by the company to 1300.

Expansion

In 1994, the company opened its first site in England, in

. In 1996, Clark agreed deal for site and assets of Glasgow-based H Prosser and Sons Ltd, unaware that the company was imminently to be put into receivership. By May 2002, Arnold Clark had 97 dealerships and with annual sales expected to reach £1billion, with a claim to be Scotland's largest private company although Grampian Country Foods recorded larger sales for the four years following this. In December 2003, Arnold Clark acquired the training company GTG. By the end of that year, the company employed 6,000 people and operated more than 120 showrooms across the United Kingdom. In April 2005, the company paid a first dividend to the family trust family that it is co owned by. In May 2006, the company acquired the

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

and

MINI The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

specialist Harry Fairbairn, which had dealerships in

Giffnock Giffnock (; ; , ) is a town and the administrative centre of East Renfrewshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies east of Barrhead, east-southeast of Paisley and northwest of East Kilbride, at the southwest of the Greater G ...

and Irvine. In August 2006, the company opened a car showroom in the regenerated Glasgow Harbour, Europe's largest. By November 2007, it was approaching a £2billion turnover. In June 2007, it overtook Grampian Country Foods to again become Scotland's biggest private company. With the announcement of the Vehicle scrappage scheme in August 2009, Arnold Clark expected to create 700 jobs. By September 2012, the company was expanding through the acquisition of other dealerships. Fleet sales still accounted for a relatively small proportion of the company's business. The takeover of the Weir group in September 2012 also saw the company expand into the market of

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

. Acquisitions also included a site near

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, and a dealership and bodyshop in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

Recent history

2014 was their sixtieth year of trading and this was marked with the company’s turnover reaching almost £3billion, with a rise in used car sales partly responsible. They were involved with the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

as a partner organisation, helping look after the fleet of official vehicles. In February 2015, the company undertook a rebranding of their buildings. In 2015, the company took over Ness Motors in Inverness, Elgin and Perth. By September 2016, the company had 200 dealerships and 24 franchises, with a staff of 10,000. Arnold Clark never retired from the company, remaining as chairman until his death on 10 April 2017, at the age of 89. On 31 January 2019, Arnold Clark completed their takeover of ''The Phoenix Car Company''. Phoenix was a family-run car retail group established in 1993, with dealerships of Kia,

Hyundai Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

, SsangYong and

Mazda is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima (town), Fuchū, Hiroshima Prefecture, Hiroshima, Japan. The company was founded on January 30, 1920, as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd. ...

. In 2022, in partnership with the FA, the

Arnold Clark Cup The Arnold Clark Cup is an invitational women's association football tournament hosted by the Football Association in England, starting in 2022. It is named after car retailer Arnold Clark, who signed a multi-year sponsorship deal. ITV acts as t ...

was founded; an invitational international women’s football tournament hosted in England.

Locations

In December 2007, the company's Botanic Gardens Garage was designated a

category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

. It had been built before 1912. The company had plans to demolish the building but later withdrew their plans, and in April 2014, one planning application was granted to convert it into a gym. The company has a purpose-built head office in Hillington which houses a dealership of

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

, this was completed in 2016.

Awards

In October 2009, the company won the "Glasgow Business Award" for ''Apprentice Employer of the Year''. In May 2016, the company's marketing department was named 'In-House Marketing Team of the Year' at ''The Drum Awards 2016''. In 2022, the company won Dealer Group of the Year as well as Retailer of the Year at the Automotive Management 2022 Awards.

References

External links

* * {{Economy of Scotland 1954 establishments in Scotland Auto dealerships of the United Kingdom Automotive companies established in the 20th century Automotive companies of Scotland British companies established in 1954 Companies based in Glasgow Retail companies established in 1954 Retail companies of Scotland Scottish brands Transport companies established in 1954