FEATURE
‘I’ll probably die in this chair doing a deal.’ Tom Hartley is one of the motor trade’s unique characters. James Baggott was given a personally conducted tour of the tycoon’s dealership estate.
Tom Hartley welcomes James Baggott to his showrooms
52 | CarDealerMag.co.uk
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irect, focused and to the point, 58-year-old car dealer Tom Hartley has been in the trade since he was a boy. He started out buying and selling cars at the age of 12 and has developed and expanded his business empire to a multi-million-pound set-up that now shifts supercars to the rich and famous. Currently in stock are million-pound motors including a Porsche 918 Spider, Bugatti Veyron and Ferrari F50 – and he’s taken the time to show Car Dealer around. His dealership really is rather unique. Built on a 40-acre estate in Swadlincote, it looks pretty unassuming from the roadside. But behind the electric gates is a treasure trove of supercars spread between two showrooms – the latest just built at a cost of £10m. The new showroom is split over three floors. There’s a lift that takes cars up and down, a car turntable on the basement floor and a classic car section on the top, where a white Wolf of Wall Street special Lamborghini Countach takes centre stage. Next to the showrooms is Tom’s house, rebuilt from the ground up eight years ago – ‘each brick was handmade and cost £1 each’ – and across the immaculately manicured lawns is his son and business partner Carl’s home. Elsewhere on the estate his other children have homes too. ‘I built this,’ he tells Car Dealer during our visit. ‘I have never borrowed a penny in my life. I have never had a mortgage or a loan – what you see here has been bought and paid for with my own money.’ And that includes the stock. Business partner and son Carl tells us there’s often more than £30m-worth of metal on the estate, paid for with cash. ‘My dad taught me that we make an offer and stick to it – and pay up,’ said Carl. ‘We’re buying and selling cars all the time. ‘We sold six on Saturday – business has never been better.’ The Hartleys give us a guided tour of their latest showroom – pointing out the glass floors so you can see the cars from below. Carl’s office is in the centre of the showroom, behind domed glass, where he sits at a huge desk with smart new leather chairs for clients. Next to the office is a bar with wine chilling on the counter and optics of Grey Goose vodka on the wall. ‘We don’t sell cars here really,’ explains Tom. ‘The only reason someone wouldn’t buy a car from us when they get here is that they didn’t like the colour. ‘I’d say we convert at least 90 per cent of the people who drive through those gates. We know who they are and what they want before they get here.’ And Hartley says this continued throughout the lockdown – while the coronavirus shut dealerships across the country, the family firm carried on unaffected. ‘We were the only dealership in the country legally allowed to open during lockdown as this is my home and business. I live here, I work here.
