Vertu Motors expands Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire footprint with family firm acquisition

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Tyneside motor retailer Vertu has added nine new dealerships to its growing portfolio following the acquisition of a Yorkshire family firm.

The business, which has a network of 202 sales and aftersales outlets across the UK under the Bristol Street Motors, Vertu and Macklin Motors brand names, has struck a deal to acquired Burrows Motor Company Limited, a family-owned group of dealerships with its head office in Doncaster.Burrows operates five Toyota dealerships, two Mazda dealerships and one Kia dealership, as well as a non-franchised used car dealership, and the transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing in its first full year of ownership.

The deal also expands Vertu’s manufacturer relationships, while significantly increasing the firm’s brand presence in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, adding outlets in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield, York and Worksop. All the outlets will be rebranded to Vertu in line with its recently announced brand strategy and integrated into the Vertu systems platform in the coming weeks.

Burrows – which turned over £168.9m and an operating profit of £1.4m last year – has been acquired for an estimated £12.5m, subject to finalisation of completion accounts, with £1m of the consideration deferred for 12 months. The consideration includes £17.6m in respect of freehold properties and a payment of £4m for goodwill.

The deal will be funded from the group’s existing borrowing facility and cash resources. The group has also taken on around £10.5m of Burrows’ freehold property backed mortgage funding, provided by a manufacturer and used car stocking loans. Due to the seasonality of vehicle sales, the business is expected to be loss making for the remaining four months of the financial year to 28 February 2025, but will start to add earnings in its first full year.

Robert Forrester, CEO of Vertu Motors, said: “We have long admired the Burrows business and are delighted to have completed this acquisition creating further scale for the group with key manufacturer partners. The acquisition of Burrows gives us considerable scale in our partnership with Toyota and strengthens the Vertu brand in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. This is in line with our strategy to actively pursue value accretive growth opportunities to enhance our portfolio, applying strict investment return metrics as well as returning cash to shareholders.”

Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber

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Southport stabbing suspect charged with terror offence and production of poison

The teenager accused of the fatal stabbing of three girls at a dance class in Southport has been charged with production of a deadly poison and a terror offence, the chief constable of Merseyside Police has said. Axel Rudakubana, 18, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court by videolink on Wednesday charged with production of a biological toxin, Ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism. The charges come after searches of his home in Banks, Lancashire, Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said at a press conference on Tuesday. The terror offence relates to a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual, Ms Kennedy said. Rudakubana is already charged with the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, who were fatally stabbed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Hart Street, Southport, on July 29. He is also charged with the attempted murder of eight other children, instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, as well as possession of a knife. Ms Kennedy said: “Searches of Axel Rudakubana’s home address resulted in an unknown substance being found. Testing confirmed the substance as Ricin. “We have worked extensively with partners to establish that there was a low to very low risk to the public and I want to make that reassurance clear today. “I can also tell you that there was no Ricin present at Hart Street.” She said it was “certainly not the case” that police were deciding to keep information from the public and said she wanted to reassure communities that police are committed to getting justice and to being open and transparent. The attack has not been declared as a terrorist incident by counter-terror police, Ms Kennedy said. She added: “I recognise that these new charges may lead to speculation. “The matter for which Axel Rudakubana has been charged under the Terrorism Act does not require motive to be established. “For a matter to be declared as a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established. “I would strongly advise anyone against speculating as to the motivation in this case. “The criminal proceedings against Axel Rudakubana are live and he has a right to a fair trial.” The police chief urged people not to engage in “rumour and speculation”. She said: “We must not lose sight of the families of Elsie, Bebe and Alice, who are still grieving, and the families and those victims who were present at Hart Street on July 29. “We need to do the right thing to ensure that the justice process is not prejudiced.” Dr Renu Bindra, senior medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency, told the press conference experts undertook a thorough public health risk assessment following the discovery of Ricin. She said: “There was no evidence that any victims, responders or members of the public were exposed to Ricin, either as part of the incident or afterwards. “Our detailed initial risk assessment judged that the risk to the community and the wider public was low.” Rudakubana is alleged to have entered the school holiday dance class, at a small business park in Southport, shortly before midday. Elsie and Bebe were pronounced dead at the scene. Alice was pronounced dead at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the early hours of the next day. The day after the attack, thousands turned out for a peaceful vigil in the town but later a separate protest erupted into violence outside a mosque in the town. In the following week, protests took place in dozens of towns and cities across the country and descended into violence and rioting, with asylum centre hotels in particular targeted. More than 1,000 arrests have since been made and hundreds charged and jailed. A provisional trial date for Rudakubana has been set for January next year. Published: 29/10/2024 by Radio NewsHub

Last executed witch might have lived for years research

The last woman believed to have been executed in England for witchcraft may have avoided the gallows, according to research. Professor Mark Stoyle, a historian at the University of Southampton, believes a spelling error by a court official suggests that the accused woman was not hanged but instead lived for several years. Alice Molland was sentenced at Exeter Castle, Devon, in 1685 for ‘bewitching’ three of her neighbours and she was presumed to have been executed in the city’s Heavitree area in the same year. This mean that Ms Molland would have been England’s last executed “witch” and a plaque commemorating her death and that of three other women known as the Bideford witches – who were definitely hanged in 1682 – is located close to where she was condemned. But Prof Stoyle’s research suggests that the court documents from the time contained a spelling mistake and Alice Molland might actually have been called Avis Molland. He said a clerical error could have caused the confusion and explained: “Court records from the 17th century were written in Latin, and in this form it would only have taken a single mis-stroke of the clerk of the court’s pen to transform ‘Avicia’ (Avis) into ‘Alicia’ (Alice). “Almost nothing is known about Alice’s life and attempts to illuminate it have failed. “So when I saw reference to an ‘Avis’ Molland in local archives – knowing Molland was an unusual name in Exeter – I was struck by its close resemblance. I immediately asked myself, did ‘Alice’ Molland ever exist? Is Alice, in fact, Avis? However, Prof Stoyle said his research had uncovered several references to Avis including that she was married to a man named Cornelius Molland, who was a freeman of the city, in Exeter Cathedral in 1663 and went on to have several children. The records also show that over a period of 10 years, three of their children died and at some point, Cornelius also died, leaving Avis a widow. Prof Stoyle said: “By the time of the 1685 trial, Avis Molland was a poor, middle-aged widow, who was burdened with loss – precisely the kind of woman who was likely to be accused of witchcraft in early modern England.” He added that circumstantial evidence suggests Avis was imprisoned at Exeter Castle and is recorded as testifying in 1685 against a woman accused of predicting an uprising of 2,500 weavers in a civil rebellion spreading across the West Country. Prof Stoyle said it was possible that Avis overheard this woman boasting about the insurrection while visiting her husband who was imprisoned in the castle for rioting, which places her in the jail at the time of trial listed as Alice. Avis died eight years after the supposed execution of Alice in 1693 meaning that if there was a simple spelling mistake, then the actual last executed witches in England would be the Bideford three – Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards or Mary Trembles in 1682. Prof Stoyle added: “The lack of records for Alice’s life, and the circumstantial evidence in support of the case for Avis being our condemned woman, points to a witch that lived.” “But the truth is, despite all my diligent searching, we may never know for sure whether history has got it wrong.” Professor Mark Stoyle’s full article – In Search Of Alice Molland: An English Witchcraft Will O’ The Wisp – will be published in the November edition of The Historian, the magazine of the Historical Association. Published: 29/10/2024 by Radio NewsHub

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