Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group

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Mon 23 Jan 2017 19:00
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - Derek Tidman

Hi Guys.

I’m looking for a bit of help. I’m doing some research for a close friend who is to sick to do it for himself.

I’m trying to determine what happened to Executive Motor Group Ltd who at one time were based in Welwyn / St Albans. They controlled the remainder of the Godfrey Davis operation Godfrey Davis Motor Group Ltd.

The Godfrey Davis operation was transferred to Executive Motor Group in 2001

Early 2008 Pendragon PLC as Bramall Quicks Ltd disposed of the business that made up the group. It’s not clear in the accounts what happened. Did they just close it down, make everyone redundant and dispose of the sites or transfer it or some as a trading operation.

It was a significantly bad time for dealerships show it’s quite possible its sites just.

Any help you can give me would be appreciated

Edited by Derek Tidman on 23/01/2017 at 19:00

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Mon 23 Jan 2017 19:19
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - Bromptonaut

Might be helpful in terms of focussed replies if we knew why the information was wanted.

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Mon 23 Jan 2017 19:43
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - Derek Tidman

I can tell you that it is very important to him that's why I'm helping.

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Tue 24 Jan 2017 19:58
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - Bromptonaut

I can tell you that it is very important to him that's why I'm helping.

OK. I was thinking he might be trying to trace a pension or something.

If interest is different I'll retreat back into my shell.

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Mon 23 Jan 2017 19:23
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - FP

As this is/was local to me and I remember the Godfrey Davis name well, I did a bit of digging and found company records for Godfrey Davis Motor Group Limited, the latest date being 2014, registered to an address in Nottingham.

www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/godfrey-davis-motor...p

The Executive Motor Group is registered to the same address, according to this page:

www.endole.co.uk/company/01110637/executive-motor-...d

A link on that page gives the website as Evanshalshaw.com, which is apparently part of Pendragon PLC. This is all a bit convoluted, but does it give a clue as to what happened?

(The Godfrey Davis site in Ashley Road St Albans is now occupied by Gates, a Ford dealeship.)

Edited by FP on 23/01/2017 at 19:25

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Mon 23 Jan 2017 20:25
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - Derek Tidman

Thank you for that.

I've actualy traced the family tree (as it were) of Godfrey Davis from Godfrey Davis (Wembley) onwards.

Godfrey Davis (Wembley) changed its name to Godfrey Davis (London) in 1978.

A parent company Godfrey Davis Holdings Ltd was constructed in 1984 and (london) was a subsiduary.

Financial Engineering allowed Holdings to buy its own shares (4m) and this led to Godfrey Davis (Trust) Ltd becoming the Holding Company.

In 1993 further financial engineering led to control being taken by a special purpose vehicle Lewcan Ltd. During Lewcan's temporay stewardship. GD (London) Ltd was merged with GD (Welwyn) Ltd.

In 1994 GD (Trust) Ltd became GD Motor Group Ltd. Caverdale Group PLC became the ultimate owner around the same time.

In 1997 Quicks Group Plc Purchased Caverdale PLC for £42m.

In 2001 GD Motor Group Ltd was transferred as a going concern to Executive Motors Group a subsiduary of CD Bramall Ltd. This was the start of CD Bramall's control of the group.

From 2002 on GD Motor Group is a dormant company. In 2004 the ultimate holding company is now Pendragon PLC.

In 2008 the accounts state that all the dealerships controlled by Executive Motor Group were disposed of along with the property assets (£12m) and that Executive Motor Group Ltd is no lnoger trading.

There doesn't seem to be any archived news or trade talk that describes the transaction.

I'm not really interested in Executive except where it affects what happened to Godfrey Davis Motor Group.

At this point I've hit a brick wall hence the apeal.

Regards

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Mon 23 Jan 2017 20:46
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - Derek Tidman

Sorry forgot to ask.

Can your recall if the St Albans Site was empty for any length of time?

Regards

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Tue 24 Jan 2017 13:46
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - RaineMan

If you follow the directors on the links many are directors of multiple companies. This suggests that the Godfrey Davis story could be a very tangled web indeed.

The first time I used Godfrey Davis (for spares) they were located in London Road, St. Albans, before the move to Ashley Road.

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Tue 24 Jan 2017 19:29
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - Derek Tidman

If you follow the directors on the links many are directors of multiple companies. This suggests that the Godfrey Davis story could be a very tangled web indeed.

The first time I used Godfrey Davis (for spares) they were located in London Road, St. Albans, before the move to Ashley Road.

I thought that was the case but didn't trust my memory. I'm not that far away in Luton and I've used it in the past.

I hadn't realised how much financiial enginering went on in the trade.

Having done all the research the only missing link is what happened to the dealerships. The St Albans one is now Gates but Gates don't detail the transaction in their accounts at the time which would be unusual.

Pendragon still own the nextdoor site branded as Evans Halshaw but in 2008 they claimed to have sold all dealerships so some must have been sold to a connected company.

The Welwyn site is hopusing now so that'sw another dead end.

Regards

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Mon 27 Feb 2017 15:54
Godfrey Davis Group Ltd. / Executive Motor Group - RaineMan

I was wondering if you had made any further progress?

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