Established in 1945, JC Campbell relocates to new purpose-built showroom creating additional jobs as part of a £2million investment

As it enters its milestone 80th year in business, third generation automotive dealer JC Campbell has relocated to new purpose-built premises in Newry and is creating additional jobs as part of a £2million investment supported by Ulster Bank.

Established in 1945 by Jim Campbell, the business was an early dealer of British Leyland, the manufacturer behind brands such as Austin and Morris. In the 1970s Jim’s son, Colin, entered the family business and paved the way for new partnerships with Rover, Citroën and Honda. Today, the third generation business is managed by Colin’s son, Stephen Campbell, whose stewardship is guiding the family enterprise though the electric revolution in the motor industry.

Originally based in Rostrevor, the dealership, which currently employs two dozen staff with several more colleagues joining its sales and servicing departments in the new year, has acquired a two acre site in Newry where it has constructed a new 1200sqm dealership and doubled its capacity for new and used stock.

Stephen said: “This is an area we’ve been looking at for the best part of a decade. The local population is growing and the infrastructure means it’s easily accessible to motorway and cross-border traffic. It really expands our territory and opens us up to more business geographically.”

As part of the investment in the new facility, the business has also secured a new contract with MG as one of its premier authorised dealers.

“We’ve real confidence in the future of the MG brand. Sales have been skyrocketing in recent years. It remains one of the fastest-growing in Europe and that’s down to an excellent mix of electric and hybrid vehicles at different price points to suit a wide range of drivers.”

Ulster Bank senior relationship manager Danny McGivern said: “Over the past 80 years, JC Campbell has seen and adapted to significant change in the automotive industry, not least the rise of the electric car. It has always been a forward thinking family business and its latest investment is a real demonstration of this fact.

"The investment will create and sustain important employment opportunities in the Newry area and it provides the capacity to expand their offering into the future for their loyal and growing customer base. We are proud to support them in this new venture and wish Colin, Stephen and the entire team continued success.”

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Alongside its new vehicles, the business also runs JC Certified, its used car division with an inventory of over 60 vehicles across a variety of makes and models.

Stephen continued: “With greater capacity on site, we’re in a really strong position to grow our used vehicle division, which is the biggest part of our business. Reliability is key with used cars and our customers have come to recognise the value of the JC Certified trust mark. These are franchise standard used vehicles that are fully checked and prepared with longer warranty than others in the market. That provides great confidence to road users.”

Commenting on the future of the used car market, Stephen added: “Legislation prohibiting the sale of new internal combustion engines won’t apply to the used car sales, so we still see great opportunity to grow this side of the business over the coming years.”