How David Cox made it to the top

Lancaster and Morecambe Newspapers Commercial Review

The automotive industry has been through turmoil since the recession sparked a collapse in car sales. However, the fact that four motor dealers remain in our list of the district’s largest companies shows that, here at least, the sector remains resilient.

Occupying the number one spot in the Lancaster and Morecambe Newspapers Commercial Review list, ranked by latest annual turnover in filed accounts at Companies House, is DJ Cox Ltd, which owns a string of dealerships in Lancashire and Cumbria, including Lancaster Honda.

The company, which trades as Cox Motor Group, is a relatively new kid on the block, only having been founded in 2000.

That was when David Cox, who had previously worked for Evans Halshaw and ran a Honda dealer in Wigan, branched out on his own.

With the help of finance from Honda UK, he bought the Mayfield dealership in Morecambe and embarked on a 20-year growth plan.

One of the reasons that plan is still on track, he said, is that several of the 19 employees who were at Mayfield at the time of the buyout are still with him in senior roles, including group finance director, group after sales manager and parts manager.

"There are a number of things that have given us an advantage but the number one is people,” said Mr. Cox. “We employ some absolutely brilliant people."

“At least half of the people who were on the payroll at Mayfield are still with us in crucial positions."

“I have either been incredibly lucky or there is a really good workforce in this area of people who really want to get out of bed in the morning and succeed."

“There are businesses that like the idea of acquisition or merger work. I don’t know how some companies think they can get away with it. We have seen what happens when you haven’t got the right people in place to do it."

“We have got a deep and rich vein of talent within the company and a lot of the impetus for us to make acquisitions comes from them."

“Our growth created new opportunities for our staff and I am sure it won’t be long before they are nudging me and asking me what we are going to do next.”

DJ Cox Ltd’s filed accounts show that annual sales grew from £16.7m in 2002 to £63.1m in 2009. The big jump came in 2006 when turnover shot up 50% to £54.1m following the acquisition of Kendal Motor Village from John Wilding Ltd.

The only blip came in 2008, when sales slipped by £440,000 on the previous year, but unlike some of the national motor dealer chains, the company did not shed jobs. In fact, the number of employees at the end of the 12 months had risen by 7 to 206.

Growth has continued thanks to the development of the Kendal site, where new franchises have been added, and latterly the Blackpool operation.

“The last ten years have been challenging,” said Mr. Cox. “For my business, the credit crunch in 2008 will have made a marked impression. But it’s how you handle it, whether you make a decision to adequately deal with the situation or whether you decide to batten down the hatches."

“We have never worked with a short-term strategy like that because this is a business which looks to the long term with a 20-year plan."

“We have customers that have bought a dozen cars from us in 10 years and have used our service department 30 or 40 times."

“We have constantly featured in the top five out of 200 Honda dealers in customer satisfaction surveys.”