Why Redgate Lodge keeps reaping the rewards

By John Challen

Scott and Jane Sibley have come a long way since 2010, when they started selling cars from their home, named Redgate Lodge. A year later the business of the same name was on the move to one unit of an industrial estate, before quickly expanding into four of them. A move to an ex-retailer site in Shiremoor followed, before a service centre, bodyshop and preparation centre followed in the same area. Having gone through an extensive refurbishment post-pandemic, the company is in good shape and is regularly on the receiving end of industry recognition. The premises even encompasses the Cobalt Chop Shop, a barbers that is in one of the units. The arrangement works well, with both businesses generating customers for each other.

The two main sites are Redgate Lodge and Redgate Lodge Select, the latter selling a variety of cars ranging from around £8,000 to 14,000, the former typically dealing with higher-end products. The proximity of the two main sites in one of the key advantages. “Redgate Lodge at Shiremoor is within a mile from Redgate Lodge Select,” explains Scott. “Then the prep centre is literally a two-minute walk around the corner. So logistically, it’s really good. We bought a little Transit Custom with extra seats in the back, so if there are six cars ready at the prep centre that need to be moved down to the showroom, the guys can head down and have them all moved within five minutes.”

Numbers game

Scott says he tries to stock around 300 cars on site and has a target of 150 sales a month, which he typically hits – sometimes going a lot higher than that. “The last few months have been a bit more challenging, but we’ve never gone below 100 cars,” he reveals. “It’s interesting because when you talk to other people in the trade or from warranty companies or finance outfits, they tell us how they are struggling, but then we’ll tell them our numbers, which seem to buck the trend!

One of the secrets to the business’ success is acting on customer feedback and attention to detail. “We’ve got seven sales execs and they all ask customers to fill out a form when they buy a car asking how we did. But the real reason is the fact that we’ve won so many awards and have positive reviews, which is what builds trust. The website is immaculate, all the photographs are great, thanks to a guy in charge of digital who presents the cars within an inch of his life! There’s a video with every car and they all get an individual description, so they are all consistent and uniform.

“Aftercare is a another big plus for us,” he adds. “When there’s a problem, we’ve got two workshops and 15 technicians – including master techs – and other retailers often send their cars to us because they don’t know how to fix them!

Always keen to stay one step ahead – and have the customer front and centre in his mind – Scott made the decision to introduce a free hotel stay for customers travelling from more than 100 miles away. “As the manager of the nearby Village Hotel is a friend of mine, I asked him for a deal for our customers – and he agreed. For a relatively small cost to us, the customers can come up, relax in the hotel, use the pool, have a nice meal and then drive their new car home. That all makes it a much nicer experience, rather than looking at the whole process being a bit of a pain.

“With the hotel offer, we’ve definitely sold cars to people out of the area who might have travelled but, when you mention the hotel, it helps close the deal,” says Scott. “We always think we have a disadvantage in the north east – and a lot of different businesses struggle here. For us, more than 80% of the cars we sell are to people who live within a five-mile radius, which is great for aftersales and aftercare, but it means we are limited with our customer base. So anything we can do, such as the hotel stay, to help that situation, can only be a good thing.

Scott says that his previous life as a chef has a small part to play the success of Redgate Lodge today. “When I trained as a chef, because everything’s to do with presentation and the plate being immaculate, I learned about attention to detail. It’s all about building the plate and having the right colours and the right mix of colours. When we first started out 14 years ago, I was one of the first with a turntable in the corner of my little unit. When the photo booth went in, a lot of other retailers were wondering what I was doing, but the right light and pictures can make all the difference. We’re in a small town outside Newcastle and, if I’ve got a Ford Fiesta for sale, I need to make sure people looked at mine, rather than anyone else’s. That meant presenting the car better than everybody else did – and marketing it better – was essential.

From small beginnings

One of the big successes for Redgate Lodge is its new Dealerway app, which came from a small Facebook group set up by Scott to try and shift stock. “I wanted to say to people at auctions that I’d driven it to 70mph and it’s fine and that everything works,” he recalls. “So I set up a group called PartX Gold and cars started selling in seconds because it was all based on trust. Some people said our cars weren’t cheap, but they would rather pay when they know what they’re getting. I soon had about 5,000 people in the group and then I eventually developed an app, together with a friend, for used car disposal. We opened the group up to other retailers and ended up with about 14,000 members. We invested a lot of money and time in the new app, which launched in August and rebranded it to Dealerway.”

Beyond the app, there are more plans for expansion – typically premises close to the current location. “There’s a premises I’ve been trying to buy for two or three years,” reveals Scott. “The couple who have got it are going into retirement and the plan is to move the body shop into the newer premises, where we could expand it – and then use the expand the prep centre for the workshop. The new site is inbetween the three existing ones, which is great for us. I know these things sometimes drag on, but hopefully it will  be sorted by 2025.”