John Tordoff Executive Chairman of JCT600

Insider's Yorkshire editor Ian Leech speaks to John Tordoff, Executive Chairman of JCT600

Transcript

00:00Hi there, I'm John Sordoff, Executive Chairman of JCT600. We're here today at our new

00:05Brooklands facility in Leeds, representing Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce.

00:12Recently opened, the most expensive project that we've ever done in our 77

00:19year history and we're incredibly proud of it.

00:22It's quite an investment John, in the current climb, what's gone into it and

00:28how much planning, it goes back several years doesn't it?

00:31Yeah, it was a project that we started looking at pre-Covid and then obviously with everything

00:37happening it got put on the back burner and then picked up the drawings again post-Covid

00:43and started putting the plans together. It's been a huge task getting three brands under one roof,

00:50each individually represented. If you come into any of the showrooms they've all got a unique

00:57brand identity, they've all got very high standards and it's, as I said, it's been a huge task bringing

01:05it all together but finally got there after one or two disagreements and a lot of negotiation.

01:18Yeah, I mean the attention to detail I've seen across both the Aston and the Rolls-Royce

01:23garages is quite incredible isn't it? That's uppermost in your mind, providing

01:27the best possible service for your customers?

01:29Yeah, I mean each brand represents the absolute latest in their brand and corporate identity

01:37and I'm standing here in the Rolls-Royce showroom and it really is a sensory experience,

01:45it's more than just cars in a showroom, the lighting, the technology here is absolutely

01:52incredible and it's just the same in the other two showrooms as well, it really is an experience

01:59to come and visit.

02:00And why was Leeds a good location for it?

02:03Well, Leeds has pretty much become our heartland now and Leeds is just a bustling, busy city,

02:14I mean you've only got to drive around the city just to see the amount of investment going for

02:18what's happening in this pink marketplace. It's absolutely the right place and we're

02:25right at the junction of the M1 and the M62 so we're literally just two minutes from

02:32junction one and we're absolutely in the ideal location.

02:37Yeah, yeah and we were just talking before weren't we about

02:41customer demand for cars, what's it like at this top end of the market?

02:46Remarkably resilient, we've seen incredible levels of inquiry levels come into the business,

02:54business is challenging this year of that there's no doubt,

02:58there's a lot of hard trading going on to get deals over the line but

03:02you're going to have another successful year, albeit less successful than the

03:08post-covid years that we've enjoyed over the last two or three years.