About Close Motor Company
THE CLOSE MOTOR COMPANY JOURNEY
How it all began…
Our story starts many years ago (1959) when my Grandparents Donald and Patricia Close took the bold move to purchase a single site petrol station in Collyweston, Northamptonshire (Collyweston Garage). After a lot of hard work they managed to grow this to a multi pump fuel station and then took the leap to take on their first New car franchise partnering Triumph (1964).
Having made a real success of running this, growing the business and customer base in the local area to Stamford (Lincs), they were delivered the disappointing news that Triumph were terminating all of their smaller dealerships and they’d be one of those to lose the franchise.
Not to be downbeat and put off by this they realised they needed a new product to offer their already existing and loyal customer database and after much deliberation settled on Toyota as the brand to successfully represent for the next 33 years (1969-2002).
In 1999, we were delivered the disappointing news that Toyota were restructuring their dealer network and it had been decided that our contract would not be renewed. Having represented the brand for such a long time and unfortunately losing my Grandfather a few years prior, we had to go through this difficult process again having to choose another brand and partner to move forward with, this time it was really important we chose the right one. Again after meeting various car manufacturers we decided to go with one that shared our values and beliefs and in the year 2000 our relationship with Mitsubishi Motors UK began, but this time not in the small picturesque village of Collyweston but in the much larger town of Corby in Northamptonshire and our brand new dealership Close Mitsubishi Corby was born.
For a short period Collyweston Garage carried on representing another smaller Japanese brand (Daihatsu), but around 2005 we took the commercial decision to serve our last litre of fuel and in 2006 sell our last car from this location, now it was time to look to the future and concentrate all of our efforts with the exciting brand Mitsubishi.
After having a number of successful years (2000-2015) in partnership with Mitsubishi Motors we were offered the opportunity to purchase a second site in Peterborough Cambridgeshire, this is something that I’ve always wanted to do and something after a lot of consideration we decided to do. In February 2016, our second site Close Mitsubishi Peterborough opened its doors with the intention to represent the brand to the best of our ability in this new area while working alongside our already successful Corby site.
In July and just out of Covid 19 lockdown, every Mitsubishi Dealership in Europe was delivered the news that Mitsubishi Motors had decided to “freeze all new models” into the European market, which we were informed would end the opportunity for all New Mitsubishi’s to be sold once current stock had ran out. Off the back of this surprising news, we had to look for new franchise partners. After talking to many different franchises about their future visions, product line ups and looking at the quality of vehicles, we soon made our minds up that we wanted to represent Suzuki from our Corby location and Isuzu from Peterborough and maintain looking after all of our Mitsubishi owners and representing the Mitsubishi Aftersales franchise.
Suzuki joined Close Motor Company in January 2021, a forward facing fully hybrid brand which shares the same value as our business. We both share the belief in the customer is centric to our business’s! The product is of exceptional quality while offering exceptional value for money. We welcomed Isuzu to Close Motor Company in March 2021. Although very early days, we can confidently say that Isuzu also share the same values as us as a business and this is a brand that we look forward to representing to the highest standard for a long period of time.
The here and now ...
As of September 2021 we became the official partners for the progressive and forward thinking brand SsangYong (now KGM).
KGM, everyone is familiar with the car brands of Kia and Hyundai, however a name people aren’t so familiar with is KGM.
Like the two brands above, KGM are manufactured and produced in South Korea (in fact they are the oldest car manufacturer from there) and now have a real thirst for growth through great products and offers like their counter parts. KGM’s story starts now, like all of the other brands we represent the present and future products are of great quality, again very European in design with all of the latest gadgets you’d want but not necessarily expect.
As we now enter the modern electric world, KGM are in a prime position to become a larger player in the automotive market. A new purpose -built Electric car plant is underway to bring the next generation KGM’s to the UK and we are delighted to announce the first EV product (Korando E) will arrive with us late 2021.
While running the business for the last 22 years, I’ve tried to continue the values and beliefs of generations before me, delivering exceptional levels of customer service while trying to look after all of our loyal staff. Under my stewardship we’ll always make these two things our top priority.
To the future, as time goes by in this ever more difficult and competitive market, I’d like to think we have never been so well positioned as a company to look after all of your motoring needs. On top of this we still have the same appetite and ambition as those generations before. We want continued but sustainable growth with you, our valued customer at the heart of it.
I’d like to finish by thanking all of our customers past, present and those who hopefully will be in the future. As a smaller family owned and ran business your custom makes a huge difference and one which is greatly appreciated. Our family is still very active in the business, my father Robert Close still attends both sites weekly and Craig Close (brother) runs the aftersales at Peterborough both are fellow directors in the business.
If you’re in any of our dealerships please feel free to say hello, we really enjoy meeting all of our customers and from the longer running ones listening to your stories of our business from years gone by.