Shropshire lad who built an auto empire

You would have to be quite the petrolhead, no?

"I have no great interest or talent in cars," admits Robert Forrester, the Shropshire born-and-raised boss of Vertu Motors. "I'm actually not a great driver – I'd scare most people.

"What I fell in love with was the car business. It's phenomenal. It's complicated, it's low-margin, you're dealing with manufacturers. It's brilliant."

It's a delightfully contrary point of view from Mr Forrester, who grew up in Whitchurch and traces his family history in north Shropshire back more than 400 years.

A former head boy of Sir John Talbot's School in Whitchurch, Mr Forrester's parents Mike and Margaret ran the Redbrook Hunting Lodge Hotel nearby.

He studied geography at Oxford University – a Shropshire Star clipping from the 1988 reveals he was decorated for his exam performance in his first year.

"There was a massive tradition of sending people to Oxbridge when it was a grammar school, but not since it became a comprehensive," he said. "I could easily have stayed on to do a PhD, but my tutor thought I was too competitive to be an academic."

Mr Forrester then joined American accountants Arthur Andersen's Manchester office – at one point he was auditor for Market Drayton-based Muller.

He then met his now wife Helen, a doctor from the North East. One of the most memorable moments of their courtship was a phone conversation in which she diagnosed Mr Forrester's rapidly spreading rash as potentially fatal meningitis.

It was then that he moved to the North East to be with her, and landed a role that had been advertised on the front of the Financial Times, with car dealership giant Reg Vardy.

After six years Reg Vardy was sold to dealership giant Pendragon, and Mr Forrester had a year out of work – during which time he researched his family tree, and found forebears in the 1600s living just 400 yards from his aunt's current home in Prees – but was left considering his options.

"The only way I could really see myself getting a significant job and living in the North East was to set up a company. I went to London in 2006, and spoke to a number of investors and floated a company on the AIM market," he said.

"We didn't have a business, but we raised £26 million. We bought Bristol Street Motors in March 2007 for £60 million. We have now grown that business to 5,000 employees, and to become the third biggest company in the North East."

The company has never come into Shropshire – although there has been the occasional rumour about possible acquisitions.

"We bought 126 dealerships in 10 years," said Mr Forrester, whose mother and sister still live in Ellesmere, and whose godfather is Ray Grocott, the well-known Shropshire businessman, and the chairman of Grocontinental.

"We have bought more dealerships in the last 10 years than any other group. If I wrote down every company we were supposed to be buying there wouldn't be many left."

Vertu, which is now worth £250 million, launched before the credit crunch and the slump in confidence took hold.

While that may seem like a story of misfortune, it actually led to great opportunities for the fledgling business.

"The market crash of 2007 actually presented us with a major opportunity," he said. "There was a massive decline in the number of cars being sold, and put a lot of pressure on a lot of people.

"I went back to investors in 2010, and said if you can give us the money, we could buy some serious businesses here. We could pick up nice businesses and generate value. I think we raised £30 million in 2010.

"We wouldn't be where we are now if that crash hadn't happened. It really did aid our growth.

"In the last four years we have grown our premium businesses. We have a substantial JLR business, and have bought three Mercedes Benz dealerships.

"I'm very optimistic about the UK economy now. It's the fastest-growing economy in the Western world, it creates employment, and, as a rule of thumb, every time somebody gets a job they want a car."

Is Mr Forrester not worried about the supposed storm clouds gathering on the horizon?

"There's always storm clouds gathering," he said. "You just don't know when they are going to come in.

"People always try to find downsides as they are downright miserable."

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