Member Article

Benfield begins to rollout Lookers rebrand across the North East

Benfield, the largest motor group in the North East, has commenced the rollout of its region-wide rebranding process, following its acquisition by Lookers PLC for £87.5m in September last year.

Now the second largest motor group in the UK, Benfield’s thirty strong dealerships and retail outlets across the North East of England, Yorkshire, Cumbria and the West of Scotland are to now be known as Lookers.

The enlarged Lookers plc group nationwide now represent 31 brands across 160 dealerships, employing over 8,500 staff with a turnover of over £4bn, selling over 200,000 cars per annum.

Nigel McMinn, Managing Director, Lookers Plc, explained, “Customers will now begin to see the first signs of the name-change at our dealerships as the new-signage and Lookers re-brand begins to take place.

“Benfield is a strong regional brand, steeped in family values and history. It has therefore been essential, since our acquisition, that our name-change and rebrand plans have followed a phased approach to take our customers on a seamless journey to the new Lookers brand and values.

“We said from the outset that the culture between the two business was a perfect fit and we are committed to preserving and nurturing this culture as well as putting in place new initiatives and retail standards, which allows our customers to benefit from larger scale investments under the Lookers brand.

“This is an exciting time for Lookers to develop our brand values further across the North East of England, Yorkshire, Cumbria and the West of Scotland.”

Lookers has embarked on a re-branding marketing campaign, including increased TV and Radio advertising, digital media and outdoor advertising, promoting ‘Lookers’ as the new name for Benfield.

“Lookers and Benfield both originate from family backgrounds and we have carefully designed and targeted the name-change and re-brand activity to effectively ‘combine’ the best of the two brands.

“Customer feedback and response has so far been very good and we are all very excited about the new era for Benfield under the Lookers brand.” added Nigel.