Van Mossel Group, already the biggest car retailer in the Belux, expands its brand portfolio for the first time with VW Group brands by overtaking Garage Mertens, a renowned car dealer in Eastern Flanders with dealerships in Sint-Niklaas, Lokeren, and Dendermonde.

Van Mossel is already selling 25 car brands in Belgium. Exceptions were the Toyota/Lexus brands, BMW and Mini, and the entire VW Group portfolio. The latter, grouped under importer D’Ieteren and representing a serious market share in Belgium, is now also present in the Van Mossel offer.

Garage Mertens

The history of Garage Mertens began in 1948, when it started to sell Volkswagen cars, becoming an official D’Ieteren dealer in 1967. Since 2016, the small dealer group has been run by Dominique Desrumaux en Fien Vervaeke.

At the moment, Garage Mertens is selling the brands Volkswagen (also the commercial vehicles), Audi, Cupra, Seat, Skoda, and Yamaha bikes. It also sells second-hand cars under the umbrella of Audi Approved Plus and My Way and has two Wondercar body repair shops.

Last year, the turnover was more than € 100 million, and the group sold more than 3 000 cars, of which 1 841 were new ones and 1 280 second-hand. Garage Mertens employs some 130 people.

“Since 1948, we have been working on a heritage of quality and service, says CEO Dominique Desrumaux. “Our new cooperation with Van Mossel is not only a consolidation of this heritage; it opens a new era of innovation and growth. We are ready for a long and prolific cooperation,” he added.

Of course, the overtaking still has to be approved by the Belgian competition authority. A decision is expected in early 2024.

Van Mossel, the conqueror

The Van Mossel history started a year earlier when founder WBJ van Mossel started to sell cars of the Volkswagen brand in Den Bosch (the Netherlands). In the last decades, van Mossel has initiated an impressive overtaking offensive, resulting in 415 retail shops in Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the UK. It is now selling 44 brands, and every year some 170 000 new and second-hand cars are sold.

Apart from that, the International Car Lease Holding (representing 118 000 cars) is also part of Van Mossel, as are some body repair shops in Belgium and the Netherlands. In total, Van Mossel employs 6 300 people and realizes a turnover of € 5,4 billion.

“Overtaking Garage Mertens is not only a symbolic step for Van Mossel Belgium, the fact that we now also can sell the brand all started with, Volkswagen, in Belgium has a special meaning to me,” says Eric Berkhof, CEO  of the Van Mossel Automotive Group.

“The overtaking of Garage Mertens completes the geographic puzzle for Van Mossel,” says Belux CEO Koen Claesen. “We now have complete geographic coverage of Flanders and represent 31 brands in 128 showrooms, 14 body repair shops, and 4 leasing companies. We think we can offer the right solution anywhere for everyone.”