The Gowan Group has announced that it will acquire FCA Ireland and assume responsibility for the distribution of the Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Fiat Professional and Jeep brands nationwide. It is a move that further expands its share of brands within the Stellantis Group, which in Ireland currently includes Citroen, DS Automobiles, Peugeot and Opel.
It began importing the Peugeot brand in 1969 and with more than 50 years of experience in Ireland the Gowan Group has grown into one of the largest vehicle distributors in the country. All of the current FCA Ireland employees will transfer to Gowan Group upon completion of the transaction.
Commenting on the announcement, Michael Dwan, CEO of Gowan Group, said: "We are delighted to become Stellantis's import partner in Ireland for Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Fiat Professional brands. We have a deep understanding of the Irish motor market and a good appreciation of the Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Fiat Professional brands. We are particularly excited with the quality of the product pipeline and with Stellantis' significant investment to power the Group's electrification strategy. We are committed to improving Irish customer satisfaction and market share for each of the brands, moving towards European average market share.
"This is another important step in the development of Stellantis business strategy which will make our sales set-up in Ireland more agile, efficient and therefore competitive while keeping the customers always at the centre. Gowan Group is currently a very important partner of Stellantis for the retail business in Ireland. With this contract signed, they will become an even stronger partner for Stellantis in the market. We are confident that our brands will perform even better in the country with this new setup," says Philippe Narbeburu, Senior Vice President European Markets at Stellantis.
The Gowan Group is currently the distributor for Stellantis Group brands DS Automobiles, Citroen, Opel and Peugeot, but separately is the importer and distributor for Honda cars and has retail sales operations with Kia. Beyond the automotive industry, Gowan Group also is a distributor for kitchen and electronics brands De Dietrich, Nordmende, Franke, Sharp, Elica, KitchenAid, Shark Ninja and Nilfisk.