MITSUBISHI Motors in the UK will follow a retail path through shopping centres as it announces plans to open 12 stores in major shopping malls.

The move is brokered by Rockar which has also established small stores inside shopping centres for Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover and Ford.

News of the expansion follows the opening in London of a similar concept from BMW.

Rockar managing director Martin Sewell said it was very expensive for an OEM or dealer to open a store in a shopping mall or on a major road.

But by partnering with a retailer, “those costs can be halved”.

“Those OEMs that get on board really quickly are going to secure themselves some great retail space to support their dealer network. The two things have to work in tandem,” he said.

Mr Sewell announced Mitsubishi’s plans at last week’s AM DigiTech conference in the city of Milton Keynes, 95km north-west of London.

“Mitsubishi has embarked on a strategy of going online,” he said.

“It has the platform and the licence from us (Rockar) and is in the process of opening stores.

“The first one opens in two months and Mitsubishi is planning to open a further 11 stores across the UK,” he said.

Mitsubishi has yet to confirm the location of its first store, to be created in partnership with Rockar, and said that it was unable to comment on the number of future locations it might open.

But Mitsubishi UK operations director Paul Brigden told AM Online: “We can confirm that we will be opening our first store this year. We will be in a position to announce the opening date in the next couple of weeks. Upon the success of this, we expect further stores to follow.”

Mr Sewell said that there was clear evidence that Mitsubishi’s strategy, which makes use of Rockar’s online sales platform with the business providing support and consultancy on the creation of the new stores in malls across the UK, would benefit the brand’s existing retail network.

“Any sale that’s done in the store, and sale that a customer does either on the platform or from an existing retail location, dealer X will get the margin,” he said.

“So, when you saw our new-to-brand ratio of 80 per cent with Hyundai, imagine how many extra customers we could be pulling through that channel. That is going to support those networks.”

The Rockar model has changed in the past year. Previously it was a retailer but now Mr Sewell said it had become a facilitator of car retail stores and online sales.

This has been reflected in the two original stores in London now being handed back to Hyundai and operated by Motorline Group. Rockar would continue to operate its Jaguar Land Rover retail facility at Westfield.

Ford’s opening, in July, of a retail operation in Next’s Arndale Centre store in Manchester has been brokered by Rockar. It uses non-commission-based staff and consultancy on other aspects of the business, being part of the agreement between Rockar and Ford.

Rockar opened its first shopping centre-based car store with Hyundai Motors in 2014 when it added a retail location at Kent’s Bluewater shopping centre and added a second location with the South Korean brand at Westfield, in Stratford, in December 2015.

Its Jaguar Land Rover operation followed, a showroom and neighbouring aftersales facility opening its doors at Westfield in September 26.

In January this year, Rockar founder Simon Dixon said that its new high street retail partnership model with Ford could pave the way to introducing car retail to more of Next’s 500 UK-wide stores.

“Next and many other high street brands are experiencing the same issue as traditional car retailers at the moment,” Mr Dixon said.

“More people are going online to buy from them yet the cost of operating high street stores remains high.

“I know the Next business has been speaking to many like-minded retailers with an eye to widen the appeal of their high street stores and offer another attraction for consumers, and I’m proud that we have been acknowledged as one of those businesses and can bring automotive retail right into the high street as a result.”

By Neil Dowling