Chesterfield-based company Gordon Lamb bought for £18.7million

Vertu Motors acquired Gordon Lamb - which until the buyout operated Toyota, Skoda, Nissan and Land Rover outlets in Chesterfield and a Skoda dealership in Derby - for £18.7million.

All staff are being retained and additional jobs are being created.

Vertu Motors, which runs many of its dealerships as Bristol Street Motors, said the purchase is expected to be 'earnings enhancing' in its first full year of ownership.

The acquisition increases the number of Vertu Motors' outlets in Derbyshire from ten to 14.

Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors, said: "Gordon Lamb is a much-respected and well-established business operating in Derbyshire, a core territory of ours.

"It is a business we have long admired and I am delighted to welcome them to the Vertu Motors group.

"I see a very clear cultural, strategic and business fit," he added.

Last year, Gordon Lamb generated revenues of £85.8m.

The company was steeped in history with its roots going right back to the dawn of the motor industry in the UK.

Back in 1953, as Britain celebrated the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, a young entrepreneur called Gordon Lamb began trading on a Chesterfield site which cost just £400.

Gordon was the first person to start a Volkswagen retail dealership in the UK and he began with a stock of just six Volkswagen Beetles.

Over the years, the company continued to grow and employed many thousands of people from the area.

The Derbyshire Times asked to speak to a Gordon Lamb representative about the sale but was told it was a 'private matter' and advised our journalist to talk to the Vertu Motors’ press office.