EAST Kent Volvo dealers, Lipscomb has acquired the West Kent territory that includes Maidstone and The Medway

towns. To satisfy the immediate requirements of the customers in West Kent, Lipscomb have acquired a lease on the outgoing Haywards of Maidstone dealership at Cavendish Way, Bearsted, and agreed to purchase stock, limited assets and continuance of existing staff for an undisclosed sum.

Lipscomb is now in the process of integrating systems and links between all locations to improve communication and access to the increased stocks available within the group. Lipscomb was acquired in 1996 by husband and wife team Peter and Debra Barnes.

Mr Barnes said: "The total commitment from the staff has seen unprecedented growth in the company and the awarding of the Volvo franchise for West Kent is just reward for their efforts. We are now looking forward to developing our business interest in West Kent and the services we provide with Express Trade Parts Delivery, Corporate Fleet and full facilities for the retail public."

A major success of Lipscomb has been its development of the used car market and this will carry through in the Maidstone operation with group stock available in excess of 100 used cars any one time.

Mrs Barnes will assume the position of dealer principal for the Maidstone dealership. She said: "We feel it is important to be accessible in our business and give the support to the staff at the ground level, getting to know our customers and understanding their need. We are not interested in short term relationships, our philosophy has always been to build them long term and that is why our customers come back, we really do care about the service we provide at Lipscomb and believe firmly this is the ingredient of our success."

Plans are already being made to relocate the Maidstone business to a purpose built site that will be better located to serve Volvo customers in both Maidstone and The Medway Towns in the future.