Stellantis and Gowan have reached an agreement to acquire the distribution of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat Professional brands in Ireland.
Stellantis and Gowan have reached an agreement to acquire the distribution business of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat Professional brands in Ireland.
Dublin, 1 October 2021: Gowan Group, the family owned holding company, announces today that it has agreed to acquire FCA Ireland, taking over responsibility for importing the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat Professional brands into Ireland. The conclusion of this transaction is subject to the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commissioner’s approval.
The transaction comes in the wake of the merger of car manufacturers PSA and FCA earlier this year, which created Stellantis, one of the world’s biggest car manufacturers with industrial operations in 30 countries and a commercial presence in 130 markets worldwide.
In addition to already importing Peugeot, Citroën, Opel and DS brands, Gowan Group will now import a total of eight Stellantis brands in Ireland. Gowan Group will assume responsibility for all of FCA Ireland’s operations and current employees will transfer on completion of the transaction.
“We are delighted to become Stellantis’s import partner in Ireland for Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Fiat Professional brands,” says Michael Dwan, CEO of Gowan Group. “We have a deep understanding of the Irish motor market and a good appreciation of the Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Fiat Professional brands. We are particularly excited with the quality of the product pipeline and with Stellantis’s significant investment to power the Group’s electrification strategy. We are committed to improving Irish customer satisfaction and market share for each of the brands, moving towards European average market share.”
“This is another important step in the development of Stellantis business strategy which will make our sales set-up in Ireland more agile, efficient and therefore competitive while keeping the customers always at the centre. Gowan Group is currently a very important partner of Stellantis for the retail business in Ireland. With this contract signed, they will become an even stronger partner for Stellantis in the market. We are confident that our brands will perform even better in the country with this new set-up,” says Philippe Narbeburu, Senior Vice President European Markets (excl. G5) at Stellantis.
Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat Professional are iconic brands that complement Gowan’s already broad model portfolio. Leveraging the many new and advanced powertrain developments across the Stellantis Group, all these brands in the newly acquired portfolio will benefit from a substantial investment in latest generation technology and exciting new models beginning in the very near term. Starting with five new model launches in 2022, each brand has a clearly defined and accelerated strategy aimed at delivering to our customers a full suite of models meeting today’s and tomorrow’s market demands.
Gowan Group has been involved in motor distribution in Ireland for 52 years, importing Peugeot vehicles since 1969 and Opel vehicles since 2019. In April of this year, Gowan Group commenced the importing and selling of Stellantis owned Citroen vehicles in Ireland, having previously imported Citroen vehicles to Ireland between 1982 to 2009.
The contract with Stellantis to take over responsibility for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat Professional in the Irish market is an acknowledgement of Gowan’s good results as representative for other Stellantis brands in Ireland. It also confirms Stellantis’ confidence that Gowan has the ability to grow the market shares for these brands in Ireland.
