The Sytner motors group has opened a car-less showroom in its home city of Leicester.
The motor retailer has launched CarShop Express Leicester, where online shoppers can come in for a test drive or to click and collect second hand cars.
Sytner said the 15,000 sq ft shop in Blackbird Road has been designed to feel more welcoming and friendlier than a typical big showroom, and has staff on hand to help customers search online if they haven’t found what they are looking for at home.
CarShop already has 11 large and more traditional stores in different locations across the UK – each boasting huge showrooms and forecourts containing hundreds of makes and models – but this will be the first of its stores that allows car buyers to access its 6,000 cars this way.
CarShop chief executive Nigel Hurley said the new venture has created 10 new positions
He said: “We’re delighted to announce the opening of our very first Express store in Leicester and be one of the first car retailers to make this move.
“The car buying marketplace is changing, with more and more brands looking to their online offering, but we’re confident in our model.
“We put the customer first and make every effort to ensure they can buy their perfect car in the way they feel most comfortable doing so – whether that’s at one of our larger showrooms, entirely online with home delivery or at our new CarShop Express stores which happily combine the two.”
Michele Williams will be leading the store as branch manager following a 14-year career with CarShop across several different roles and locations.
She said: “It makes so much sense for us to open the first CarShop Express in Leicester.
“As well as it being a heavily populated region with a thriving business scene, CarShop Express Leicester will add to CarShop’s growing East Midlands offering following the successful opening of flagship store, CarShop Nottingham, in December of last year.
“We’re hoping to attract new customers to our Express store, with it providing a holistic, modern and comfortable car shopping experience. It will have the same high standard of service, great value prices, and vast range of choice that any other CarShop store has – only in a quick, easy, and friendly new way.”
Leicester-based Sytner is the biggest automotive group in the UK, representing 22 of the world’s most prestigious brands and with more than 100 modern dealerships nationwide.
Its portfolio ranges from Audi and BMW to Ferrari and Lamborghini, with the most recent addition to the group being Bugatti in Manchester; one of only two official dealerships of its kind in the UK.
The business employs more than 7,500 staff within its dealerships and its head office in Grove Park, Leicester.
