Opening of £9m car sales centre set to create 20 jobs

Jaguar Land Rover is to open a £9 million dealership in Ashford, creating 20 jobs over two years.

The car retailer will open its sales and service centre on five acres of the Waterbrook Park business park near Junction 10 of the M20.

The site is due to open either late next year or in early 2019, with 60 staff at its existing dealership in Orbital Park due to relocate.

Bosses expect to create 10 new jobs immediately after the move and another 10 during the following 18 months to two years.

Paul Barrett, managing director of Canterbury-based Barretts Motor Group, which will run the centre, said the firm had outgrown its current home but still wanted easy access to the M20 and the rest of Ashford.

He said: “We have seen a sig- nificant rise in sales of both Jaguar and Land Rover as new and exciting models have come to the market.

“From under this one new roof in Ashford we will be able to showcase the full range of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles, and also have the latest high-spec servicing facilities.”

Barretts is also poised to relocate its head office near Canterbury’s Westgate Towers, where it has been based for more than a century, over the next year to Broad Oak Road.

Darrell Healey, managing director of GSE Group, which is developing the business park, said Jaguar Land Rover was “synonymous with quality, design and British engineering” and said he was delighted with the move.

Waterbrook Park is also home to the Ashford International Truckstop, which owner GSE Group plans to extend to meet