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Lex joins the empire
Page 68
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Imperial Holdings of South Africa has bought Lex Commercials and renamed it Imperial Commercials. Its first act was to add the Hino franchise to its portfolio. Kevin Swallow reports.
It's business as usual for customers of Lex Commercials following its acquisition by Imperial Holdings. Ian Oakes, managing director of what is now known as Imperial Commercials, says being part of Imperial Holdings will bring substantial backing from a well-established international company.
"This allows us to strengthen existing customer relationships and there will be synergies that directly benefit our customers," he adds."Customers will gradually notice that all of our locations are being rebranded as Imperial Commercials, along with our 200-strong fleet of service vans, parts vans and courtesy vehicles.
"Our prime objective is to provide vehicles and service that allow customers to get on with efficiently running their businesses, and we're now in an even better position to do that."
Imperial Commercials operates 23 dealership locations around the country employing 1,000 people. Last year it achieved a £200m turnover selling 3.800 new and more than 1,200 used commercial vehicles.
It has franchises for Daf,Foden, Isuzu, MAN-ERF, LDV, and now Hino.The Hinos will initially be offered at Imperial's Derby and Peterborough sites; a third is in the pipeline. Oakes says:"We are very keen to pursue this additional franchise opportunity, particularly in view of the significant Hino model range expansion that's planned.
"There has been a good deal of comment about ex-Foden dealers signing for Nino, but I want to reassure our Foden operator customers that we remain committed to them with a full aftersales capability in place.The new Hino appointments will sit alongside MAN-ERF businesses where we no longer operate vehicle sales franchises." •