Carcraft was an independent group of

used car A used car, a pre-owned vehicle, or a secondhand car, is a vehicle that has previously had one or more retail owners. Used cars are sold through a variety of outlets, including franchise and independent car dealers, rental car companies, buy ...

hypermarkets A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...

established in 1951 in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, with eleven locations around the country. Stocking cars from

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

. Carcraft was established by Frank McKee, and was bought out in July 1998 by his sons Noel and Darren McKee. This was in a £50 million deal, backed by the

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank ...

's Development Capital arm.

History

Carcraft was established in 1951, by Frank McKee in

. In July 1998, his sons Noel and Darren McKee bought the business from him in a deal backed by the

’s Development Capital arm, valuing it at £50 million. In April 2000, Carcraft acquired a

car supermarket A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive mainten ...

located in Newport from Car Group for £10 million, whilst Car Group was in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

. It also purchased a former Carland store located in Sheffield. In December 2000, Carcraft was put on sale, with a price tag of £200 million. In December 2005, Carcraft became the first independent second hand vehicle retailer to create and found a contract hire car company. Named ‘All in One leasing’, the business provided services to companies who have small to medium fleets of cars, with Carcraft leasing them new vehicles, then replacing them and selling the used vehicles at its used car supermarkets throughout the country. In October 2006, Carcraft acquired another four sites from Carland, which were located in Chertsey, Enfield, Lakeside, and Stockport. In April 2014, a management buyout was led by current Chief Executive Robin Bridge, and was backed by Apollo Ventures, for an undisclosed sum. On 30 April 2015, the company was placed into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

, suffering substantial losses and failing to keep up with rival marketing (marketing spend was £100k a week with a return of average sales of two hundred cars a week). Staff were told by the administrators the very same day leaving over five hundred people, with no redundancy pay or notice. The Carcraft brand is now owned by the Rix brothers, Reg and Louis Rix, who also own Carfinance247, a firm fined £30,000 in September 2016 for sending 65,000

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text messages Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...

Recognition

In April 2011, Carcraft received recognition from Experian, for achieving the number one most visited website for the ''UK Automotive and Dealership category'', earning it an ''Experian Hitwise Top 10 Award''. It also received a ''Quality Driven Award'', for exceptional customer service, awarded by Steve Hodgkinson from Easi Drive.

Showrooms

Carcraft had eleven showrooms located across the United Kingdom. There were centres in the following areas: * Birtley *

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the ...

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

* Knowsley (

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

) * Lakeside *

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

(

Trafford Centre The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and entertainment complex in Greater Manchester, England. It opened in 1998 and is third largest in the United Kingdom by retail space. Originally developed by the Peel Group, the Trafford C ...

) * Newport *

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Wednesbury Wednesbury () is a market town in Sandwell in the county of West Midlands, England. It is located near the source of the River Tame. Historically part of Staffordshire in the Hundred of Offlow, at the 2011 Census the town had a population of ...

References

{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Companies based in Rochdale Auto dealerships of the United Kingdom Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom 1951 establishments in England 2015 disestablishments in England Retail companies established in 1951 Retail companies disestablished in 2015 Used car market