About the Sytner Group

In our state-of-the-art dealerships across the UK, Sytner Group represents the world's most prestigious car manufacturers. Our success has been built by every team member working together and contributing to our one team ethos. We strive to deliver an exceptional customer experience; our employees are highly trained, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and driven to deliver our fundamental commitment to our customers; of getting it right first time and making each and every interaction special.

Our ultimate aim is to be considered the best company to work for in the industry and the best company to do business with.

History of the Sytner Group

In 1968, Frank Sytner and his older brother Alan (previously the owner of the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool) opened their first used car dealership in Nottingham. Just two years later, the brothers were awarded the BMW franchise for Nottingham and Frank began his successful motorsport career. Beginning in the single seater formulas in the 70’s and early 80’s, Frank’s career culminated with him winning two British Touring car championships in 1988 and 1990 with BMW.

It was after gaining these two BTCC titles that Frank decided to focus his energy on expanding the BMW business which he and Alan continued to operate in Nottingham. Putting his notorious energy and competitiveness to work outside of racing, the expansion of the company began in 1993 with the acquisition of a BMW dealership in Leicester and was quickly followed by a third BMW operation in Sheffield.

After spending many years working exclusively with BMW, the decision was made to diversify the Group to represent other prestige marques and by 1997 the dealership count had reached double figures; including brands such as Ferrari, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover and Porsche. Later that year the company floated on the UK stock market and became Sytner Group PLC with long term Sytner director, Laurence Vaughan taking on the role of CEO.

The Penske Era

By early 2002, Frank and Laurence had rapidly expanded the company to make it one of the largest and most successful car dealership groups in the UK. It was at this point that it came to the attention of Roger Penske, the prominent US businessman, legendary motorsports team owner (Penske Racing) and former award winning racing driver. Roger was looking to further grow his successful US based car dealer group, Penske Automotive Group (PAG), by expanding into Europe.

Given Frank and Roger’s shared passion for motorsport and a culture of uncompromising focus on both employee and customer delight, it was perhaps inevitable that the two companies would join forces later that year.

In 2003, Gerard Nieuwenhuys, a long-standing Sytner director, took over from Laurence Vaughn (who became Chairman) as Group Managing Director. With the mighty resources of PAG now at his disposal, Gerard continued the company’s expansion at the same time as investing in developing our people and building some of the best car dealership premises in the world. After more than a decade leading the company, Gerard took over from Laurence as Chairman in 2014 with Darren Edwards, another long-standing Sytner employee taking over as Group Managing Director.

Present Day

At Sytner we understand that exceptional customer service can only be consistently delivered by attracting, motivating, training and retaining the very best team members. With this in mind, we put our employees at the heart of everything that we do by developing their talent and enabling them to build long term careers. Testament to this, we are very proud to have taken part in the Sunday Times Best Companies Awards for 11 consecutive years - receiving our best ever result in 2017 by being named the UK's Best Big Company to Work For. 

Further to this, we are proud to have achieved a top five position in the ‘Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For’ for eight consecutive years, awarded the coveted three star status for four consecutive years and a special award for Innovation in Engagement, in 2017, that recognises our efforts to change perceptions of the industry.

Today Sytner Group boasts state-of-the-art dealerships across the UK and is the number one retailer for many of our manufacturers. By working together with our manufacturer partners we are developing a growing presence in key European markets including Italy, Germany and Spain.

During 2016, Sytner Group became the UK's largest motor dealer by revenue and despite our growth and increasing scale, we are proud to still retain a strong family ‘Sytner’ culture across all of our dealerships.

We hope you enjoy browsing through our website and look forward to assisting you with your requirements.

Penske Racing image courtesy Team Penske Pressroom