Glencullen Group, the Irish distributor of Renault vehicles controlled by Mr Bill Cullen, has acquired Whichford Motor Group, a British car dealership company, for £4.5 million sterling. The deal will almost quadruple Glencullen's turnover to around £220 million. However, a spokesman for Glencullen said the operations in Ireland and in Britain would be run separately. Whichford, with sales of £135 million sterling, has 16 retail car dealerships located in Reading, Harlow, Maidenhead, Ilford and Basingstoke where it has a six-acre motor mall. Employing 500 people, it has franchises for Honda, Vauxhall, Toyota, Rover, Mazda, Hyundai and Peugeot. The company sold 10,000 new and used cars in 1997. "It is our intention to develop this UK group with our share purchase and investment injection of about £7 million. There is real potential for significant growth in car sales volumes," said Mr Cullen.

Whichford, which was purchased from Schroder Ventures, is understood to have significant debt but the investment will be used to reduce the levels. "It was not properly financed," the spokesman said. "We are now working with Woodchester to organise a better car finance business." Asked about getting the Renault franchise into the outlets he said: "We will have to look at all the franchises".

Glencullen, through its subsidiary, Glencullen Distributors, is the importer and sole distributor for Renault cars and vans in Ireland, with sales of £60 million. Vehicle sales rose by 60 per cent to 9,750 in 1997. This represented double the volume in 1995. Glencullen is also the Irish distributor for Varta Batteries, Elf Oil and Cobra Security Systems.

Mr Cullen has become chairman of Whichford, while Mr Tom Forbes and Mr Vaughan Snowden are joint managing directors.