Lookers - the new name for Benfield

Benfield, who were acquired in September 2015, have today started the process of transitioning to Lookers branding, ensuring a seamless experience for customers and an alignment of brand values.

In recognition of this important day in the history of both companies, Nigel McMinn, Managing Director of Lookers said, “Customers will now begin to see the first signs of the name-change at our dealerships as the new-signage and Lookers re-brand begins to take place.

“Benfield is a strong regional brand, steeped in family values and history. It has therefore been essential, since our acquisition, that our name-change and rebrand plans have followed a phased approach to take our customers on a seamless journey to the new Lookers brand and values.

“We said from the outset that the culture between the two business was a perfect fit and we are committed to preserving and nurturing this culture as well as putting in place new initiatives and retail standards, which allows our customers to benefit from larger scale investments under the Lookers brand.

“This is an exciting time for Lookers to develop our brand values further across the North East of England, Yorkshire, Cumbria and the West of Scotland."

The Lookers portfolio was greatly enhanced by the addition of Benfield’s 30 strong dealerships and retail outlets and the acquisition has seen the Group embarking on wide-reaching customer communication. This has included a re-branding marketing campaign, with increased TV and Radio advertising, digital media and outdoor advertising, promoting ‘Lookers’ as the new name for Benfield.

"Lookers and Benfield both originate from family backgrounds and we have carefully designed and targeted the name-change and re-brand activity to effectively ‘combine’ the best of the two brands. Customer feedback and response has so far been very good and we are all very excited about the new era for Benfield under the Lookers brand.” Nigel added

Established in 1957 in Newcastle by John Squires Sr, Benfield grew to become a leading motor retail and aftersales service group, with with more than 1,600 staff and an annual turnover of nearly £700m.