Customer announcement - 29/01/2024

 

Customer Announcement – 29/01/2024

 

We currently hold 2 Franchises for Ford, a Retail dealer (Sales) and an Authorised Repairer (Service and Warranty) franchise.

Ford Motor Company have decided to reorganise their dealer sales network to suit their expected future sales plans. 

 Ford have made the decision to reduce the number of sales points whilst retaining the majority of these dealers as Authorised Repairers.

As a result, along with a number of other Ford Car retailers, 2024 will be our final year selling New Ford Cars from our Market Street Showroom. 

Our Ford franchise for Service and Warranty will remain unchanged at our King Street Workshop, and our sales site for nearly new and used cars at Haverigg will also remain.

 

However, our new car showroom will close at the end of 2024.

 

We'd love to have a bumper final year on new cars so we will be going all out on some excellent offers and deals, it would be great to see lots of returning customers in our final year of new car sales!

 

 It is always our aim to be open and transparent with our customers, and we look forward to the changes we have coming over the next 12 months and beyond.

 

 

Questions and Answers;

 

What will the effect be on staff?

No staff will be made unemployed and there will be zero effect on our service and repair team. Our new car sales team will relocate to our used site at Haverigg and refocus their efforts on improving our used and nearly new car offering.

 

Why are you announcing this now?

We prefer to be upfront with our customers, and we know many would like the chance to "buy one more" brand new car from us in 2024. If we leave it too late to announce this then some people would miss out, as many new cars are taking 4 months to be built and delivered currently.

 

What will happen to the current new car showroom from 2025?

We will start looking into options in 2024. We do not plan to sell the site, we will either look to rent it out, or create a new business in there that isn't related to car sales or service.

 

When is the last time I can place a new car order with you?

We would advise ASAP, but ideally no later than July to be safe. If you order a new car from us and it didn't arrive by 31.12.24, Ford would arrange an alternate dealership for you to collect it from and complete the transaction.

 

What about Motability Customers?

We will be working with Ford to identify the nearest possible sales point. However, if you order another Ford Motability car, we will still be able to do all the service and maintenance of it like we always have done. When you come to change, you would just need to travel to place the order and again once more to collect it.

 

How does this affect me if I've recently bought a new car from yourselves?

There is no change in our service for you. We can still provide Ford Servicing and Warranty Work, and help with any questions on your finance package. When you come to the end of your finance term or are ready to change again, just call in to see us and we'll advise on your options to keep the car or renew it.

 

How do W.Milligan and Sons feel about this?

We've been partnered with Ford since 1981 and completely respect their decision on this, business has to be profitable so they must do what they think is right. We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Ford and make improvements to our Authorised repairer franchise. 

We're very proud to have been top performers which allowed us to keep the sales franchise in the town for so long.

We're also very happy we can finally get the sales team all together in one site, rather than trying to staff two showrooms.

 

 

Who will be my nearest dealership for the purchase of new cars after you close?

This will be made clear nearer the time. We do not know for certain exactly which sales points will remain and it would be unfair to speculate.

 

 

What is the future for W.Milligan and Sons?

We're very excited as we have lots of plans, and we’ve already been working to offset any profits we may lose from not holding the new car franchise. Some diversification has already happened with our successful self-storage business, and we've more plans in the pipeline.

 

We're excited to be getting our sales team all together at Haverigg and we'll be spending money to improve and develop that site. We also hope to get closer with our plans to start on a new bodyshop build at our workshop to improve the facilities we offer too!