Take a look at Lookers. The car dealer " concentrated in North- west England and Northern Ireland and focusing on volume car marks such as Vauxhall, Renault and Honda " just did its seventh acquisition in a year. It is buying two Volvo dealerships, a deal notable not for its size (estimated at less than pounds 1.5m) but for the fact that it takes Lookers over the border into Scotland for the first time.

The acquisitions will be increasingly important as the market for new cars turns down. It is expected to fall about 5 per cent this year in line with weaker consumer confidence.

As well as buying growth that cannot be so easily achieved organically, they have also diversified Lookers. It now has a greater proportion of its business in the used car market and FPS, which it bought for pounds 31m a year ago, supplies spare parts. It is highly profitable and could be seen as insurance against a prolonged downturn in car buying, since if people don't buy new cars, they will surely have to repair their increasingly clapped out old ones.

Lookers is on course to make profits (adjusted for goodwill and one-offs) of pounds 18.4m this year, according to its broker. On a multiple of earnings, it is the cheapest car dealer in the sector, which looks a little unfair (although its relatively high level of debt, while not a worry, could be a reason).

Park it in your portfolio.

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