Gowan Group has acquired the DG Opel dealership on the Navan Road in Dublin for €12 million in a deal that increases the footprint of its motor business.

The main beneficiary of the transaction is DG Opel's managing director, Michael Fitzsimons. The deal, completed in recent weeks, brings the number of motor dealerships owned by Gowan to four.

One of the largest privately-owned businesses in the State, Gowan has held the Irish distribution rights for Peugeot and Citroen since 1969. The group also owns significant interests in the household appliance and industrial tools sectors. The DG Opel dealership, which stands on three acres, gives Gowan a dealership on another major artery on the outskirts of Dublin.

It already has dealerships on Parkgate Street near Heuston Station and in Dún Laoghaire. Peugeot has a 4.5 per cent share of the motor market, while Citroen has 2 per cent.

Turnover at Gowan's holding company, Convest, fell by 9 per cent to €313.4 million last year, while pre-tax profits dropped from €46.1 million to €27.1 million. However, the group's 2005 profit included €22.4 million from property sales.

Operating profit declined from €21.2 million to €17.3 million in 2006. Convest paid dividends of €4 million to its owners, the Smith-Maughan family, last year.

Gowan, which employs 820 people, has embarked on an aggressive expansion and diversification programme in recent years - about three-quarters of its 2006 profit came from its non-motor businesses.

The business owns the Kal Group, which has a number of well-known kitchen brands including Franke, Neff and Indesit. It also owns three Aga cooker shops, in Dún Laoghaire, Cork and Galway. Gowan has expanded into Northern Ireland in recent years with the purchase of the Lurgan-based kitchen distributor AB Distributors.

It is also an investor in the television station, Channel 6, and Webprint in Mahon Point, Cork, which prints the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Business Post for Thomas Crosbie Holdings.

The company controls Senator Windows, the Wexford-based PVC window company it bought last year. It also owns the Gardiner Group, which distributes Stanley and Makita Tools in Ireland.

Gowan is run by its executive chairman, Michael Maughan, and chief executive Michael Dwan. Most of the shares in the group are owned by Maughan's wife Gemma whose first husband, the late Con Smith, founded the business in 1969.

Gemma's daughters, Fiona, Cristiana, Maria and Alba, are also shareholders.