AS Group, the business behind Auto-Sleeper motorhomes and the Marquis dealer network, has named Alan Buckwell as its next managing director. He takes over on 1 January 2027.

He replaces Mike Crouch, who retires on 31 December 2026 after 48 years with the business.

On paper, it’s a board appointment. Look closer, and it tells you which way the UK’s largest motorhome dealer network is facing.

What AS Group Has Actually Announced

Strip out the warm words and the facts are simple.

  • Who: Alan Buckwell, currently deputy managing director of AS Group.
  • When: He starts as MD on 1 January 2027.
  • Who he replaces: Mike Crouch, retiring at the end of 2026.
  • Who stays: Geoff Scott remains CEO.

Buckwell joined Marquis, the group’s retail arm, in 2001. He went on to run sales, then sales and marketing, before stepping up to deputy MD.

The company credits him with shaping its sales and marketing strategy and with bringing new Trigano brands into the UK.

Crouch’s departure matters too. With Scott, he co-led the management buyout that took the group back into UK hands after its spell under Italy’s SEA Group.

Trigano took a controlling stake in the group in 2017. Marquis now trades from 12 locations.

Why a Retail Leader at the Top Matters

AS Group is two businesses under one roof. Auto-Sleepers builds motorhomes in Worcestershire. Marquis sells them, along with a long list of other Trigano brands.

Handing the MD role to someone who grew up on the retail side is a choice. AS Group’s own CEO points to Buckwell’s grasp of both retail and manufacturing. But his track record is in selling vans, not building them.

That fits the wider picture. Trigano is holding motorhome production flat for the first half of 2027 after a year in which deliveries to dealers rose faster than sales to buyers. Its own retail arm fell 5% in the same period.

When a manufacturer can’t push more units, the margin has to come from selling the units it has. That’s a retail problem. And it now has a retail person in charge.

Let’s be fair. This is also a story about continuity.

A 25-year insider replacing a 48-year insider is not a shake-up. Don’t expect a new strategy on 2 January.

What This Means for UK Dealers

If you hold a Trigano franchise, Marquis is both a fellow dealer and a sister company of your supplier. A retail-first MD makes that tension sharper, not softer.

Buckwell’s record of bringing Trigano brands into the UK is the part to watch. Marquis Exeter added Adria caravans in March 2026, which made Marquis the biggest Adria caravan dealer in the UK across four sites. New brands and new ranges are likely to land at Marquis first.

Three things worth doing before the year is out:

  1. Ask your Trigano brand managers about 2027 allocation now. With production flat, units are finite. Get your numbers in writing before the new MD’s plans firm up.
  2. Map where Marquis overlaps your patch. Twelve sites from Plymouth to Durham. If one sits inside your 50-mile buyer radius, check what it’s showing online against your stock, model by model.
  3. Sharpen what Marquis can’t copy. Local knowledge, a named workshop team, honest part-exchange. Put it on your website, not just in your showroom.

For buyers, little changes in the short term. Warranty and servicing run through the same sites. The bigger shift, if there is one, will show in which brands and ranges reach UK forecourts over the next two years.

A Wider Pattern of Hand-Overs

This isn’t the first long-serving leader to step back. At Truma, a 45-year veteran handed over in February 2025. At Thetford, the former sales and marketing lead became MD for Europe the month before.

The generation that built these businesses is handing over. In Marquis’s case, the job has gone to someone who knows the buyer best. In a flat market, that’s where the money is.

Here’s the blunt truth. The group with the most vans in the UK just put a salesman in charge. If your own plan for 2027 still assumes more stock will fix weak sales, you’re reading the market differently to the people who make the vans.

Start with the allocation conversation. Then look hard at what buyers in your area see when they compare you with Marquis online.