MCS Group in gear to deliver major car dealership

Leading national construction contractor MCS Group is celebrating after passing the halfway mark in the construction of a major new Peugeot Citroen and DS Automobiles car dealership in London.

West Midlands-based MCS Group is delivering a four-storey dealership for new and used cars, on behalf of Robins & Day, on a high profile site at Chiswick, London, where the M4 motorway joins Chiswick High Road and Gunnersbury Avenue.

MCS Group was awarded the £12 million construction contract by the PSA-owned dealer group, whichoperates 62 new vehicle franchises from 40 locations across the UK, and is due to reach practical completion of the 73-week project in February 2020.

The development includes a ground floor workshop and used car showroom. A new car showroom will occupy the first floor, with offices on the second floor, and staff parking and vehicle storage on the third floor.

The building almost fills the entire 3,200 sq metre site, with a narrow strip of land reserved at the front of the showroom to display used vehicles. Work on the complex steel frame has been completed and the installation of cladding and glazing is underway.

MCS Group operations director Steve Cruchley said: “This is a fantastic project with some serious challenges, largely associated with the site being adjacent to a very busy intersection of vital roads leading to the centre of London.

“Thanks to a very high level of teamwork from all of the partners involved, the project has made excellent progress and we’re on schedule to deliver this high quality dealership on time and on budget early next year.”

James Weston, CEO at Robins & Day, said: “This site is very important to Robins & Day because it has been a very successful trading location for us for the past 30 years. Coming along the M4, you can see all the other car dealerships that have prominent buildings and we wanted to make this, at the end of the run, the most prominent one of them all.

“It’s great to see the progress that has been made and we’re looking forward to opening for business in early 2020. We are currently working with MCS on a number of major developments including complete new constructions at Maidstone and Leicester. We pride ourselves on developing the best premises which, when combined with our top calibre employees and management teams, ensure we can provide excellent levels of service to all our customers across the country.”

Emlyn Witchell, facilities consultant at Robins & Day, said: “MCS Group is the first name on our tender list because we know what we are going to get. We know the personalities, we know what they are capable of. We know how they work and when you come to a complicated project such as this they were the logical choice for us.”

The construction team includes architects Scaramanga Design, structural engineer AKS Ward Ltd, mechanical & electrical engineers Hannaford Upright and quantity surveyors HCT Construction Consultants.

MCS Group has built and refurbished more than 300 car dealerships since its inception in 2003. The Warwick-based company has worked on a string of high-profile projects for the likes of Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Porsche, Mclaren and Jaguar Land Rover, ranging in value from £50m to £250m.

The ambitious constructor has enjoyed a period of sustained growth in delivering projects across the motor retail, industrial, storage and distribution sectors and has set itself a target of increasing profits and doubling current turnover to around £200 million by 2020.