There is yet more bad news for workers as it is announced Snows Isle of Wight is to close its Forest Road motor park next month, resulting in a number of redundancies.
Staff at the Newport site were summoned to a meeting this lunchtime (Monday) where they were delivered the blow by the firm’s Head of Business, Diana MacKinnon, who travelled over to the Island to break the bad news in person. They’ve been handed 30 days’ notice – but it is unclear at this early stage exactly how many jobs have been lost.
It is said that the ongoing market volatility and unforeseen economic circumstances have forced the decision, despite best efforts to sustain the business.
It was in October 2023 that Island Echo revealed that brand new BMWs and Minis were no longer being sold at Forest Road. The following month it was finally confirmed that Islanders could no longer buy a brand new BMW, Mini, Fiat or Abarth vehicles on the Island, with the local Snows site becoming an approved repairer and a satellite of Portsmouth.
The Seat/Cupra marque was also relinquished and replaced by Vauxhall.
Now, 15 months later, Snows have decided to close their Isle of Wight branch in its entirety meaning yet more job losses for the Island and the loss of a long-standing local garage.
The doors will close for the final time on 5th February 2025.
Snows Isle of Wight says it is committed to fulfilling any outstanding obligations and completing ongoing projects to the best of its capabilities before the closure date.
In a statement, the motor firm has said:
“Due to difficult trading conditions in the automotive industry and a significant increase in running costs, we have reached a point where continuing to operate an outlet on the island is no longer feasible.
“It is with regret that we will close Snows Isle of Wight on 5th February 2025.
“We are in consultations with affected staff members, and where possible will seek to find them alternative opportunities within the company.
“We remain committed to supporting our island customers from our mainland dealerships in Portsmouth and Southampton and thank our island customers for their loyalty over the years”.
It is unclear whether the Vauxhall brand will now completely disappear, or rise like a phoenix elsewhere on the Island. The Vauxhall brand has moved around the Island a fair bit over the years, from Hartwells in Carisbrooke to Harwoods in Wootton, Esplanade in Cowes and Snows in Newport.
The news comes just weeks after it was announced 300 jobs are to be lost at Vestas and that Hovertravel is seeking to reduce its workforce by 17. There was another blow on Boxing Day when it was announced Wyld in Newport had closed with immediate effect.
Is’nt the uk just great …the death of car ownership nice new cars..not ev crap the end is coming going to cost the uk billions and many thousands of jobs..net zero climate crap all part of the plan..very poor sad looking uk.
How fortunate then that we’re not being dragged down still further by all those Euro-deadlegs !
The Plandemic was orchestrated to de-populate
and bring in the new Agenda.
Many people still don’t believe it and are
still rolling up their sleeves, bless them!
Never trust politicians
This is such a shame. my dad got his car here they were a bit laid back on the issues however got it sorted in the end and the staff are amazing. isle of wight needs jobs stop closing down businesses
This is just the start of it, wait until Labours
budget kicks in, there will be Job losses at a
rate never seen before.
I have always found Snows in Pompey to be
the better dealership.
Snows on the island are so laid back, they probably aren’t
aware the dealership is closing down.
Lol
All well and good being committed to supporting the Island Customers if you need a new car, but if you have an older one that requires servicing or MOT and you have a service plan with them not exactly cost effective to go to the mainland. Also if you don’t have a plan with them but want to keep up the service records with a dealership again not cost effective….We found that when ordering new cars the Portsmouth branch kept taking Island slots for builds, so of course it wasn’t going to be cost effective to operate as the Island would lose the business….
I guess people voted with their feet, I mean if better service was available elsewhere, that’s where people would go, even if that meant a trip to the mainland. Never felt I heard the best advice from snows….
I tried to buy a new BMW there last year. They were worse than useless and not only did they not sell me a car but they lost BMW a long-term customer when the helpful people at Leslie’s sold me a new Toyota instead.
I hardly surprised I feel really sorry for the staff, but probably one of the worst companies to deal with…. Just look at how they’re treating the staff 30 days redundancy payment.
Made the mistake of buying car from them new, misled me with protection insurance my fault for taking it out admittedly but you could not claim for it on the Isle of Wight successfully get it repaired. Managed to eventually to get it cancelled and refunded but still the word swimming large predator fish comes to mind….
Then, for the remains of the warranty of the car, I had to take it to be serviced there… One particular time they didn’t do anything just washed it! The following year they did actually do something but left the cap off the coolant. Admittedly, the service was free after the previous year fiasco.. on the third year I had enough and took it to a dealer on the mainland which is not easy easy finding a company that was not part of SNOWS group. Completely light and day different.
Unfortunately, a mechanical failure with the electrics happened and I had to have it taken to them when the vehicle was five years old for them to try and fix it, basically they didn’t and charged me.
Sold the car at this point and bought a vehicle looked after by the nice people in Cowes!