About Us
Norton Way Group was formed by a management buyout of a Honda dealership in Letchworth in 1989.
Since that time the Managing Director, David Grainger has added a Mazda dealership on adjoining land and purchased an existing Peugeot franchise to strengthen the Business.
With combined expansion ever in mind David opened the innovative Chiswick Honda brand centre on the site of the old Honda UK head office in 2001. This was the culmination of many years of hard work, and planning.
In 2004 Norton Way Group relocated its highly successful corporate operation to a purpose built facility in Arlesey.
Norton Way Motors continues to grow in 2012 with the introduction of Nissan brand to the group, through the launch of our brand new dealership Norton Way Nissan in February 2012. Occupying 1035m2 of space, the new dealership operates as 4x4 specialist dealership offering vehicles such as the Nissan Navara and Pathfinder and also offers a wide array of Nissan’s latest models. With the launch of Wimbledon Park Honda and Norton Way Skoda in April 2012 at our site in South West London, SW18, Norton Way have now increased to four Honda dealers and introduced Skoda to our group with our new Skoda Approved Accident Repairer situated at Norton Way Skoda.
A New Era for The Norton Way Group
In April 2008 the shareholders of Norton Way Group Limited and Marubeni made an agreement to transfer the control of the Norton Way Group to Marubeni Corporation subsidiary, Marubeni Auto Investment (UK) Limited. Since then Norton Way Motors has continued to grow, opening our third Honda dealership Dunstable Honda in May 2009 and most recently, in September 2009, introducing the Suzuki brand to Group with Norton Way Suzuki in Letchworth
Marubeni History in Brief
Marubeni was founded in 1858 in the western part of Japan when a merchant started trading in textile materials. Since then, his family business has expanded into other commodities and overseas. In 1949, Marubeni Corporation was formally incorporated.
Marubeni, through a large number of mergers and acquisitions, became one of the largest general trading companies in Japan. This type of business is rather unique to Japan, and as a result Marubeni is one of the largest trading companies in the world. Today, with an annual turnover of US$80 billion and is ranked 211th in the Fortune Global 500.
Marubeni Automotive consists of some 50 companies/dealerships and is headed by Marubeni Corporation Automotive Department in Tokyo. The activities vary from import/export, retail import/distribution, service, retail finance and even manufacturing (as a minority investor with mainly Japanese manufacturers).
It is not an easy task even for us to explain the business of Marubeni in a short space, so we invite you to view our website www.marubeni.com
The ethos behind Norton Way remains the same, with the focus on quality rather than volume, and 'being the best'. Success has translated into Industry Awards; including Businessman of the year, and Employee of the year. We have also received Motor Trader awards including Franchised Dealer of the year for Chiswick Honda, Sales Team of the Year and Dealer Principal of the year.
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