For Porsche, a desire to have a presence in Tewkesbury dates back to 2007. It was made a very attractive commercial proposition due to the town’s geographical location as being close to customers in the Cotswolds and Cheltenham; plus easy motorway access north and south and great train links.
The vision was delivered by the Dick Lovett Group and as a Porsche dealership for 40 years, the company had a very clear vision for the new showroom and set about finding the perfect site.
A prominent location was key together with the space to create their own purpose-designed building to showcase the growing Porsche range. The dealership’s wish was to make buying a new car a special occasion befitting the premium brand. They wanted the enjoyable experience to continue when customers brought their cars back in for servicing and after-market care.
The result is a luxuriously-appointed and striking building which dominates the north-west corner of the roundabout at Junction 9 of the M5. In just 18 months, Porsche has established itself a well-known Tewkesbury landmark.
The business targets are well ahead of schedule and sales have topped 400, that’s virtually one a day since they opened in July 2014, plus 700 service customers. The service team are extremely busy, consequently, Dick Lovett is recruiting extra technicians.
“Dick Lovett has a long heritage as a Porsche dealership and there were several key requirements but accessibility was vital and Tewkesbury has great transport links,” explains Leon Vitti, Centre Principal at Porsche Tewkesbury. “We’ve got 2.2 acres here and we don’t need it all right now but we wanted to give ourselves room to grow.
He added: “Sales have exceeded our expectations and the business we wanted to attract has come to us through our marketing programme. We’ve also been really pleased to see customers come to us just by passing our new building and being curious about owning a Porsche. That has been an added bonus.”
Leon attributes a lot of Porsche’s recent commercial success down to the expansion of its range. What started with just one car – the Porsche 911 – has now expanded to six. Alongside the sports cars the brand is famous for, there are now more family-focused models, including the Panamera and Cayenne.
Porsche has well and truly settled into Tewkesbury. Leon and his team are looking forward to further developing the dealership’s initial success and establishing a reputation as one of the country’s foremost car showrooms and service centres.
