F&I Management & Training

Lookers has announced it intends to close down two Lexus dealerships next month.

A spokesman for the group said the Brighton and Southend sites would cease trading on 5 December.

The Brighton site employs 17 staff and the Southend outlet has a workforce of 18.

"Every effort will be made to redeploy staff," the spokesman said.

At the end of October Lookers warned it would scale down its retail operations to reduce its cost base in order to cope with the market downturn.

Finance director David Dyson told Motor Trader: "We are closing underperforming sites. By the end of the year we'll have sorted out a dozen businesses."

With the latest closures the group has reduced its network from 140 to 128 sites in 2008.

It has remaining Lexus dealerships in Hatfield, Hertfordshire and Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The spokesman said the decision to close the Brighton and Southend dealerships was part of "a planned restructure of Lookers operations in the South East".

He said the group intended to provide customers with aftersales services in the local area.

In line with the overall market, Lookers new car sales fell 19 per cent in the third quarter of the year.

This followed a 28 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to £13m in the first six months of 2008.

Lexus has suffered from both the economic slump and a lack of new product this year.

It sold fewer than 10,000 units in the first 10 months of the year - down 30 per cent on the same period in 2007.

DATED: 24.11.08

FEED: MT