French car giant Renault is to sell the Irish operations for its brands to the owners of Nissan Ireland.
Renault Group is already part of a global alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors.
Kuwaiti-based Cedar Ireland Automotive Ltd, owned by Al Babtain family, already owns Nissan Ireland and the retail group Windsor Motors Limited. It also holds a 50 per cent stake in Autolease Fleet Management Ltd, a joint venture with Allied Irish Banks, which provides business and personal leasing services to the Irish market.
From November, if approved by the competition authorities, Cedar will take over the importation and distribution activities of all Renault and Dacia vehicles. Shortly, it will also add the Renault Group’s Alpine brand to its portfolio. Alpine is focused on sports cars but will become a fully electric brand.
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The decision to opt for a local distributor reverses a 2007 move to take the Irish franchise off Glencullen Distributors, owned by well-known businessman Bill Cullen. Cullen had held the franchise from 1986, when he bought the insolvent Smith Group, the previous owner, for just £1 having agreed to take on about €18 million in debt.
A spokesman for Cedar said the initial discussion on the deal began several months ago, before the controversy surrounding RTÉ payments to Ryan Tubridy for presenting The Late Late Show, of which Renault was the principal sponsor. He declined to comment on any financial details of the agreement.
No redundancies are expected from the deal and Renault said in a statement that the move aims to further strengthen its position locally thanks to an efficient business model supporting both commercial ambitions and customer satisfaction requirements.
Nissan holds ninth position in the Irish new car sales rankings, with a 3.89 per cent market share. This deal will add Renault’s 3.54 per cent, and Dacia’s 4.18 per cent shares, plus Renault’s successful commercial vehicle sales, making Cedar one of the biggest automotive importing groups in the country. Renault is second in the new van market in the State, with a 15 per cent share, while Nissan has 1.9 per cent and Dacia 0.5 per cent.
According to Renault, the deal with Cedar is part of its “Renaulution” plan, which seeks to reverse massive multibillion euro losses incurred across Europe during the pandemic.
“In terms of brands partnerships, Cedar is a long-standing partner of the Alliance Group, both as dealer for Renault Group and also as Nissan Importer in Ireland,” said Philippe Buros, senior vice-president, sales and marketing and services of Renault Group.
James McCarthy, chief executive of Cedar said: “Cedar is proud to become the official Importer of Renault and Dacia for the distribution of the existing product range (including a rich line-up of high-tech electric vehicles) in Ireland. We will continue the successful path of the Renault distribution organisation and add our long-standing expertise in this country.”
The move to return operations to a local distributor underlines a new trend in the Irish auto market. Before the financial crash in 2008, manufacturers such as VW, BMW and Renault took over direct control of local operations in an effort to cut costs and create synergies with other markets, particularly the UK. However, in the last few years brands such as Opel and Fiat have turned to local operators to manage their Irish business.
