CAR dealership Meridian Motor Group, which was started in York ten years ago, is to double turnover to £125 million.

The group, which was founded in 2003 by managing director Mark Robinson, with the purchase of two Toyota centres in Knaresborough and York, has acquired four dealerships in the West Midlands and is to develop a new site in Scarborough.

The expansion, during its tenth anniversary year, will create six new jobs at its head office in Harrogate.

The group, which trades under the Vantage brand, is adding Lexus and Kia to its portfolio and bringing its number of Vantage dealerships to 12, almost doubling its previous and extending its geographic reach.

The group has bought the four dealerships from Sytner, taking it outside its traditional homeland of Yorkshire and Lancashire for the first time.

The £350,000 new Vantage Kia dealership in Scarborough will be developed next door to the group’s existing Toyota centre where it has been operating since 2010. It will create five new jobs when it opens in late July.

Meridian recorded turnover of £65 million in its last financial year and the enlarged business will sell 9,500 new and employs 300 staff.

Mr Robinson said the company ranks in Toyota’s top three dealers in the UK for customer satisfaction and has become its eighth largest volume partner.

He said: “I am delighted that we are able to mark a decade of achievement within the group with these acquisitions and our new development in Scarborough.

“They signal our ambition to become a real national force whilst at the same time retaining those important ‘local business’ qualities which see us operating at the heart of the communities where we are based.

“Our aim is to take the Vantage ethos of excellence in customer service that has been fundamental to the success of the Group to date into our new dealerships and new geographic areas.

“We will be investing significantly in our new sites, which is good news for staff and customers.”