Duckworth Motor Group: a connection with engineering and a love for cars

Duckworth’s has been the leading motor dealership for the Land Rover franchise for the last 40 years within Lincolnshire and also represents the Jaguar brand at a state of the art Boston facility. The independent family business has built up a loyal base of customers through its dedication to customer service.

We recently caught up with Ben Duckworth to tell us more about how a connection with engineering and a love for cars has brought the business to where it is today.

WHAT’S THE HISTORY OF YOUR BUSINESS?

The Duckworth family has been connected with engineering since James Duckworth, a precision engineer from Sheffield, moved to Lincolnshire in 1952.

1960’s
James Duckworth’s son Martin, another keen engineer, was particularly interested in motor vehicles. From the age of 12, during school holidays and at weekends, Martin worked for an MOT and servicing garage in Lincoln. In 1962 Martin left school at 16 years old. Having already moved out to the village of
Ingham, Martin and his father James opened a village garage and engineering business.

1970’s
A combination of Martin’s drive and enthusiasm for the Land Rover brand and an agricultural customer base, whose main vehicle choice for the farm was the
Land Rover Defender, encouraged the affiliation with the brand. During the late 1970’s Land Rovers had started to dominate the workload of the garage.

1980’s
In 1978 Martin began writing to Land Rover hoping to obtain the official Land Rover franchise which, after a lot of hard work and persistence, ensued in 1980. A new premises was required which would need to be big enough to house a vehicle showroom, a workshop, and a parts department. A previously derelict workshop was located in Market Rasen and after a series of rebuilds and renovations over the years it is still the location for the Market Rasen branch.

2000’s
Martin’s eldest son Ben joined the family business in 2002 after completing an apprenticeship with Land Rover UK, gaining an HND in Motor Manufacturing
and a wealth of experience working in various departments and on a number of projects at the Land Rover factory over a period of 7 years.

Present Day
In 2007 I took over the role of Dealer Principal and expanded the business to include a second dealership in Kirton, near Boston. Between the two dealerships Duckworth Land Rover now has over 100 staff members and continues to thrive due to having a passionate customer service focused attitude, an exceptional team across the dealerships, encouraging and supportive management, and a wonderful, loyal customer base.

The History of Duckworth Motor Group

WHERE ARE YOU BASED AND WHAT DO YOU DO? 

We have two main sites – one in Boston and one in Market Rasen north of Lincoln. Both sites offer the Jaguar Land Rover car sales and after care products and services and at Boston we also offer Duckworth Select, an all brands used car site, as well as Isuzu vehicles sales and support. We offer a full car retail and servicing business as well as: MOT’s, Part Exchanges, Car Finance, Body Shop – body kits, paint jobs, replacing parts, fixing scuffs scrapes etc, Courtesy cars,  Nationwide Delivery and Parts & Accessories Shop & Website.

HOW HAS THE BUSINESS GROWN?

The Duckworth Motor Group currently has 146 full time employees plus drivers and valeters totalling circa 190. Duckworth prides itself in employee retention as continuity is what customers rely on, who to talk too and the same friendly faces. Several members of staff have been with us now for over 30 years.

WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?

We are committed to serving customers in our local area of Boston, Market Rasen and areas in between with some influence over Peterborough and Lincoln. Due to COVID and the acceleration of digital car retail platforms, there has been an increasing pressure to go digital. With that, we have become committed to serving all our customers, no matter where they are in England, Wales and Scotland – we even have some pictures of a customer picking up a car having been dropped off in his helicopter last week. So we will accommodate anyone.

HOW ARE YOU INVOLVED IN THE BUSINESS?

I work between all three sites with Heads of Business heading up the site teams. I was invited to join the automotive Afi in 2015 that was founded in 1994 with a single aim: to provide the leading executives and thinkers and executives from all areas of the international automotive sector with a forum in which they could share their knowledge, express their opinions and debate issues of relevance to the industry. I am also the National Chairman of the JLR Retail Board that meets regularly with the JLR first line as an interface between the 230 retail sites and the manufacturer.

WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY ETHOS?

What separates us from other Jaguar Land Rover dealerships is the fact we still operate as a family run business with close personal connections, a loyal  customer base and our ethos is about supporting local with family values. We feel unique to couple this family business mentality with state of the art Jaguar
Land Rover facilities.

HOW HAS THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS IMPACTED YOUR BUSINESS?

As most will be aware, a combination of unfortunate events have caused the New Car market production to, in some areas halt, and in most, slow significantly. This has caused a few knock on effects for Duckworth. These events consist of under production of semi conductors, resulting in a backlog, several disasters such as the semiconductor factories burning down, Brexit has complicated the importing of some goods etc. Wait times on cars have gone up drastically as a result meaning the used car market has become even more important to the supply of cars to our customers. We have one of the largest used approved Land Rover stocks in the country.

Although it’s a turbulent time in any business currently with COVID, supply chain issues and rising costs and interest rates there are some really exciting things happening in the Duckworth Businesses with our manufacturer partners. We are awaiting a new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport together with a a host of facelifts then to be followed by 100% electric powered variants.

WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES AT THE MOMENT?

The slowed production of new cars has brought challenges, however, we have one of the largest used Jaguar Land Rover stocks nationwide. This is due to the tireless effort of the sales managers to continuously hand pick vehicles for our stock, and the fact that our customers trust us to give them a fair price for their car which drives trade-ins and adds to stock.

TELL US ABOUT DUCKWORTH MOTORSPORT?

Together with some of our master technicians we have built and developed an off road race car to compete in the MSA Off Road National Championships. Over the past 5 years we have had several wins and top three places. The engine for instance is based on a Jaguar 4.4 litre naturally aspirated V8 that we have modified and tuned to 480bhp and 500Nm torque. This has been done and dyno mapped using all Motul fluids, we use a SADEV gearbox also running Motul specific gear oil. Both front and Rear differentials, based on a ford 9” but modified for independent suspension use a UK made and developed limited slip diff also developed with Motul oils.

Duckworth Motorsport

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CAR OF ALL TIME?

I know I am biased on this topic but if I were to pick one car it must be a Range Rover, it just does everything well.

WHO IS YOUR INSPIRATION IN BUSINESS?

Over the 25 years I have been involved in the business my father has taught me to be thorough, concentrate on the detail and listen to industry experts, as well as how important it is to look after customers. Over the last 30 years there have been several heads of motor trade businesses that all have been very successful. I have found it interesting looking at what they have done well and then to try and take these great facets and instil them in our business to drive an overall great performance.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE BUSINESS IN THE FUTURE?

Our ethos has always been gradual organic expansion with our trusted partners, so we have slowly built on this. Even during lock-down we opened our second Bodyshop at JLR Boston and only last week we commissioned our new trade parts van dock and loading area for our 5 daily delivery vans from Market Rasen. During the third lockdown we launched our complete end-to-end buy online platform with integration into finance houses and part exchange valuation. We are about to start 2 new goods inwards buildings with Rase Steels and looking forward to the builds starting.

IF YOU COULD DO IT ALL AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?

-The team have done a great job in helping the business expand, and this has been done with care and attention, we could probably have been a bit bolder in investing in technology such as our buy online platform sooner.

HOW DID YOU BEGIN WORKING WITH WITHAM GROUP?

Approximately 25 years ago we started working with Witham who provided us with floor paints for our garages and workshops. Duckworth Motor Group now uses paints and lubricants throughout our business and in some cases has JLR approval through approved technical packs and additives.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU IN A SUPPLIER?

A good supplier is recognised by us on levels of service, as it’s no good having the cheapest supplier if they can’t deliver or the quality is poor. So a quality product and good service is what we need to have, along with a competitive price and value for money. Witham Group do all of the above.

To read more about how Witham Group support the automotive and passenger car industries, visit our website here.