Sycamore Stamford returns to West Street as BMW and Mini franchise

A West Street car dealership is set to return to its roots as a familiar Stamford business name makes a return to town.

The former Donald’s Mazda and MG site is scheduled to reopen this summer as Sycamore Stamford, an extension of the group’s BMW and Mini offering in Werrington, Peterborough.

The relaunch will include a new Fast Lane NEXT Service Satellite centre, offering MoT and servicing centre for all makes and models.

The revamp includes a fully refurbished, state-of-the-art workshop, a major refit of the used car showroom and resurfacing work on the whole site.

They hope to be open for business in June.

Sycamore’s head of business, Carl Morris, said: “We are putting a huge investment into the Stamford site."

The site first opened for business as Sycamore (Stamford) back in July 1935, following on from Sycamore (Peterborough) which had been founded nine years earlier.

It is now one of eight companies within the Central Garage Group which was founded by Bob Hamblin in Uppingham in 1952 and is still owned by the Hamblin family.

Their Uppingham site is the original dealership Bob left to his son Peter, who then went on to grow the company over the decades changing the focus from haulage to cars and motorbikes.

Peter’s daughter Sam joined the company in the late 1990s and took over as group chairman in 2015.

In 2008, the management of Sycamore Stamford was internally transferred to Peterborough-based Donald's Garage group, and is now returning to its Sycamore name as a BMW and Mini franchise.

"Donald’s is an integral part of the group," Mr Morris added.

"West Street has always been Sycamore trading as Donald’s with MG and Mazda, and we are proud to continue to serve a town full of history, of which we have been part of for over 70 years."