"Premium brands – like Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes and BMW – could one day sit alongside each other in one showroom if the ‘multi franchising’ trend takes hold.

While not naming brands specifically, Vertu Motors chief executive Robert Forrester told Car Dealer that he thinks it’s only a matter of time before premium manufacturers come together under one roof.

Multi franchising, a term coined for coupling car sales for different manufacturers in one dealership, has been frowned upon in the past.

Car manufacturers like to set their own standards, insist on certain furniture and a specific look and ‘feel’ for their dealers – but it could be about to change.

Chatting to Car Dealer Live this week, in a video you can watch above, Forrester said he thinks in the next five years we ‘might surprise ourselves’ with the brands that agree to be sold from one single dealership.

He said: ‘My view is that even some of the premium manufacturers will look at this as they rejig their networks.

‘You might have a very large brand centre and you could have other spokes that could be multi franchise.’

Forrester revealed that he is already in talks with some premium brands about coupling them together at digital-led dealerships.

These sites would display a few cars and the rest of the brands’ ranges on huge digital screens."

Forrester added: ‘We’ve got manufacturers looking at three car showrooms with digital – big digital screens.

‘I have always been slightly amazed by how multi franchising wasn’t a feature of the UK and we have “standards” that stop multi franchising.

‘But if you went abroad they were multi franchising like it was in vogue and I’ve seen some really lovely multi franchising dealerships.

‘I think the economic reality will drive multi franchising.

‘I think we’ll see a decline in the overall number of rooftops of dealerships but actually I am not overly convinced the number of outlets will come down near the same.

‘I think outlet numbers might not decline, but rooftops will and you’ll have more under the one rooftop.’ "

https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/co...ing/218690