Jardine Motors Group, is a multi-national operator of franchised motorcar dealerships in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

with international outlets in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

and China.Group Companies - Jardine Motors
, Jardine Matheson. Jardine Motors Group market their vehicles under a series of brands worldwide including Zung Fu, Lancaster and Scotthall, and the worldwide group net profit, for the year ended 30 April 2012, was US$61 Million,2012 Group Outline
Jardine Matheson. based on revenue of US$5.128 billion.Annual Report 2014
, Jardine Matheson. The company is a part of

Jardine Matheson Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong–based, Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange ...

and is headquartered at Quarry Bay, Hong Kong.

Jardine Motors UK

Jardine Motors UK was created in 1981 when Jardine Matheson acquired a stake in the East Anglian motor company; Lancaster Group, from its founders Ronald and Nicholas Lancaster.AM100 analysis: Jardine Motors drives ahead with expansion
AM Online. Jardine Motors UK was at one stage the largest UK automotive group by turnover, but today has fallen behind rivals such as Pendragon and Sytner and is now one of the top 10. In 2014, Jardine Motors UK turned over £1.5 billionAM100 2014
, AM Online.

History

Lancaster Group was established in 1969 when Ronald and Nicholas Lancaster took control of a Ford Dealership in Ongar, Essex, where Nick had been working.Lancaster's dream: the Harrods' factor
AM Online. By 1981 Lancaster were running Mercedes-Benz,

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

and

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

dealerships in East Anglia, and Hong Kong–based Jardine Matheson purchased a 76% holding in the company. The company was floated on the stock market as Lancaster plc in 1986.Owen Goals
, MotorTrader.com. Jardine took total ownership of Lancaster plc in 1992. Nicholas Lancaster left the business to run Malaya Group plc, which would purchase H.R. Owen in 1994. During the 1990s the company made a series of acquisitions including the purchase of a Land Rover/Rover Dealership in Stratford, London from Malaya Group in 1994,Lancaster Group expands its dealership base in Kent
, MotorTrader.com. Wiggins BMW Winchester in January 1995,Lancaster acquires Wiggins
MotorTrader.com. Polar Motors in February 1995, Kent-based Loxley KJ in October 1995, BPW Group in April 1997Acquisition Ends Appleyard Blight
, MotorTrader.com. and Appleyard Group in October 1997.Barkas, Eric (1997) Appleyard in the Can for Jardine. ''Yorkshire Post'', 11 October 1997, p. 14 The merger with Appleyard resulted in Jardine becoming the largest UK dealer group that year.Lancaster Silent on Appleyard Plans
, MotorTrader.com. By the end of 1998, Jardine announced a joint venture with the manufacturer for its Ford dealerships,Barkas, Eric (1998) Ford Poised to Become a Retailer with Jardine-Polar Joint Firm. ''Yorkshire Post'', 1 October 1998, p. 14 a venture which by the end of January the following year had purchased Dagenham Motors.Dagenham Accepts Polar Bid
MotorTrader.com. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Jardine struggled to integrate the Appleyard businesses and saw profits slide,Appleyard Tough Nut for Lancaster
MotorTrader.com.Lancaster and Polar Ford cause headaches for Jardine
MotorTrader.com. but acquisitions soon resumed. Polar Ford purchased three North London dealerships from Stripestar in May 2002London Ford Dealers Join Polar Expansion
MotorTrader.com. and Alperton Ford in February 2003,Polar Buys Alperton Ford in North West London
MotorTrader.com. before Jardine sold their 51% stake in the joint venture to Ford Retail Group in March 2004.Ford acquires Polar Motor Group
MotorTrader.com. Jardine posted strong results for 2005Solid Result from Jardine
MotorTrader.com. and continued its expansion with new dealership openings such as Lamborghini in ReadingSuper cars on sale in Whitley
Business - GetReading.co.uk and McLaren in One Hyde Park in LondonMcLaren to open at One Hyde Park
Jardine Motors UK. and by purchase of existing dealers from others; e.g. Milcars BMW in 2003,
Cambridge News Online. Marshall Honda in Reading in 2006,New Honda dealership in Reading
, MotorTrader.com. Pilling Land Rover in Welwyn Garden City,Jardine acquires Land Rover site from Piling
MotorTrader.com. Merritts Jaguar in AmershamJardine acquires Jaguar site from Merritts
MotorTrader.com. in 2010, the Wayside Group in 2011EMW, Eversheds drive Jardine’s Wayside buy
The Lawyer. and five Toyota and Lexus sites in 2012.Jardine Buys Toyota Outlets from Lookers
, MotorTrader.com.Jardine buys Toyota and Lexus Cambridge sites
MotorTrader.com.

Today

Jardine Motors UK today have 70 sales and service locations across the UKJardine Motors Dealerships
Jardine Motors UK. representing

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

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 ...

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

INEOS Ineos Group Limited is a British multinational conglomerate headquartered and registered in London. it was the fourth largest chemical company in the world, with additional operations in fuel, packaging and food, construction, automotive, ph ...

Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914 in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

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, ...

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 ...

Smart ''SMart'' was a British CBBC television programme based on art, which began in 1994 and ended in 2009. The programme was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London. Previously it had been recorded in Studio A at Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingha ...

and Jardine Select.About Us
Jardine Motors UK. Although some dealerships historically operated under a variety of brands including Scotthall, Appleyard, Minories, Abridge and Clover Leaf Cars, all dealerships now operate under the Jardine brand.

Zung Fu Company

Zung Fu Company Limited (仁孚行有限公司) was acquired by Jardine's in the 1990s,Financial Times (1982) Financial Times Survey: Hong Kong XI - Finance - Jardine, Matheson - End of difficult decade. ''Financial Times'', 21 June 1982, p.xi having originally been established in Hong Kong in the early 1950s.

Hong Kong

Zung Fu brought the first

vehicle to Hong Kong in 1954 and opened their first showroom the following year. Since then Zung Fu have operated as the exclusive retailer for the brand in the region.About Zung Fu
, Zung Fu. Zung Fu operations in Hong Kong now include three sales dealershipsSales Outlet
, Zung Fu. and six Service CentresService Centres
, Zung Fu. representing Mercedes-Benz,

and, through Hyundai Hong Kong Co. Ltd;Company Profile
Hyundai Hong Kong. two Hyundai showroomsShowroom
Hyundai Hong Kong. and a service centre.
Hyundai Hong Kong.

Macau

Through Zung Fu Motors (Macau) Ltd.About Zung Fu
, Zung Fu Macau. the group operate a Mercedes-Benz showroomSales Outlet
, Zung Fu Macau. and Mercedes-Benz Service Centre,Macau Service Centre
, Zung Fu Macau. both in

Taipa Taipa ( zh, t=氹仔, ; , ) is an area in Macau, connected to Coloane through the area known as Cotai, which is largely built from reclaimed land. Located on the northern half of the island, Taipa's population is mostly suburban. Administrativ ...

China

Zung Fu (China) set up its first repair workshops in mainland China in 1986, at a time when the country was not seen as a market for luxury vehicles and when the operations of foreign companies, such as Zung Fu, were restricted by the government. Building on the existing Mercedes-Benz relationship, an authorised Service Centre was opened in

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

in 1993, but government restrictions still prevented from operating sales dealerships in the country. China joined the

World Trade Organisation The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

in November 2001,WTO Successfully Concludes Negotiations on China's Entry
Press Release, 17 September 2001, World Trade Organization. one of the conditions of which was that foreign companies would be treated the same as Chinese companies. This paved the way for Zung Fu to open their first sales dealership in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

in 2001, quickly followed by the first dealership in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

province, located in

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

.Thistle
Vol 2, 2010, Jardine Matheson. As of 2012, Zung Fu Mercedes-Benz operations total fourteen dealerships, ten further showrooms and a service centre, with the group also operating two Smart dealerships. Between 2008 and 2010, Zung Fu's car sales grew from 5,448 to 16,292, and net profit increased by US$19.9 million to US$37.5 million.Award Winners - Pride in Performance 2011
Jardine Matheson.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
Jardines (company) Auto dealerships of the United Kingdom