Belfast-based car retail group Charles Hurst has been appointed as an Audi dealer for south Dublin after it purchased the recently opened Audi Centre in Ballsbridge.
The investment by Charles Hurst – and its UK parent company Lookers PLC - is believed to be in the region of €20 million.
It gives the firm access to one of the country’s most lucrative new car sales regions, with an expected 1,500 new car sales annually. The area accounts for approximately 35 per cent of Audi’s national sales, according to Fintan Knight, managing director of Audi Ireland.
Charles Hurst will begin trading from the Ballsbridge address - and its aftersales premises in Sandyford - from September 1st. Within the next three years, it plans to move to a new purpose-built 30-car showroom outlet located near the M50, housing both the service and sales arms of the business.
The south Dublin Audi Centre currently employs 25, with plans to employ up to 40 staff when the new facility is opened.
Since it was opened in February by Audi Ireland as a showcase for their business in Ireland, the Ballsbridge outlet has sold 160 new cars and 130 used vehicles.
It is the latest change in the Audi network after dealer contracts were terminated at the end of June as part of the firm’s plan to reduce the number of sales and service outlets from 34 to 14 by 2013. At the time, the firm said it would welcome interest from new entrants to the Irish dealer market.
Audi was previously distributed by the Motor Distributors Ltd, part of O’Flaherty Holdings, until October 2008 when control returned directly to VW Group. Knight says the firm was approached by two major UK dealer groups interested in taking on the south Dublin franchise, one of which was Hurst’s.
Charles Hurst has been part of UK car dealership group Lookers PLC since 1986. Lookers operates over 120 dealerships at 76 locations in Britain, handling 32 car brands. The UK car retail group reported half-year profits before tax of £22.7 million (€27.4 million) today, up 29 per cent on the same period last year.
While the Charles Hurst group handles numerous brands from its Belfast outlets - including Ferrari, Maserati, Bentley and Aston Martin - chief executive Ken Surgenor told The Irish Times its Dublin business will focus solely on the Audi brand. However. he said the group was always open to expanding its business further in Ireland.
According to Mr Surgenor, Charles Hurst has already established a strong reputation with customers of its prestige brands and has earned a reputation for quality customer service.
The firm had previously been linked with a move to Dublin when prestige cars were selling strongly in the middle of the last decade. It is believed that Ferrari was particularly interested in Hurst’s opening an operation in Dublin at the time, but the business case didn’t add up.
Originally established in Belfast nearly 100 years ago, Hurst’s previously traded in Dublin from Upper Dorset Street from 1927 until the mid-1940s, selling Crossley cars and Dennis Trucks.