'Back with a bang' - Family-owned Richmond Motor Group returns to Bognor Regis after 13 years

The dealership, on Shripney Road's Saltbox business park, opened back in December, but management and staff celebrated with an official opening event on January 12.

Attended by local councillors, dignitaries, staff and Richmond Motor Group founder Michael Nobes, the event gave members of the public a chance to come in and see the £7 million dealership for themselves.

With branches across the South Coast, Richmond Motor Group sells cars made by MG, ŠKODA, Suzuki, and has been Hyundai's number one European dealer for several years.

The Bognor Regis site marks a big return for the company, which used to trade in Bognor Regis 13 years ago. Mr Nobes said, although Richmond left Bognor, it was always their goal to come back.

"When we left, Bognor was a small town, and trying to make a profit was tight,” he said. "The economy was tough, but when we sold that site, we did it knowing full well we’d be back.”

Now they've returned, Mr Nobes made clear the Richmond Motor Group is back for good. “We bought this land freehold. We're the only occupiers here to have done that, everyone else is leasehold. We're committed to this.

"It's natural for us to be over this way. We’ve always had a lot of customers round this way, and a lot of them would come over to Portsmouth when we closed. So we just knew we had to be here for those customers.

"We’re really investing in Bognor Regis here. We’ve promoted from within for management, but everybody else we’ve employed locally through a recruitment day. We have 29 staff here and almost all of them are from Bognor Regis.”

And it looks like there could be more on the way. Mr Nobes said the dealership has enjoyed a strong first month of trade, anWe d that could translate into even more jobs for local people.

"We took 114 orders on cars last month, which is amazing for December. And then we did £20,000 worth of service labour. So now we're looking for more technicians, and we want them to be locals. I reckon we could have nearly fifty staff very quickly.”

Read more

Residents complain of 'wanton destruction' of Yapton as plans for 20 more homes are submitted