JCT600


JCT600 Ltd is a privately owned franchise motor firm that operates primarily in the North of England, with 52 dealerships between Boston and Newcastle. The company represents twenty one car marques, and in 2019, achieved a turnover of over 1.277 billion, representing a 2% rise from 1.251 billion in 2018.

Company history

JCT600 was established in 1946 as Tordoff Motors, with one showroom that housed vehicles of Standard and Triumph. Founder Jack Tordoff, a successful rally driver in the 1960s and 1970s and winner of the Circuit of Ireland Rally in 1973, built the business over forty four years before his son and current CEO, John Tordoff, took over in November 2002. The elder Tordoff remains chairman.
The JCT600 company name came from the personal number plate of a Mercedes-Benz 600 that Jack Tordoff owned. The company began to acquire Gilder Group dealer sites came in 2009, with York and Hull Audi joining the JCT600 Group. In March 2013, Gilder CEO Garry Scotting agreed to sell all but three Honda dealerships to John Tordoff, thanks to an earlier agreement that JCT600 had first refusal, should Scotting decide to sell.
The Office of Fair Trading investigated the acquisition under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002, to establish whether the merger would result in a substantial lessening of competition.
Following a six month investigation, OFT cleared JCT600 in September 2013, with the company acquiring nine sites housing SEAT, Audi, Volkswagen and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The move also saw the number of employees increase from 1,350 to over 1,800 across the group, and annual turnover exceed £800m. The company had forty seven sites in the North East of England by June 2013, rising to fifty in 2015.

Manufacturers

The group currently represents: