Member Article

Profits motoring at Gateshead dealership group

Profits have increased significantly at Gateshead’s Vertu Motors PLC, rising to £15.8 million in the year to end of February, results show.

Vertu, the sixth largest automotive retailer in the UK, has made a 14 acquisition over the last year and reported profit before tax increased year-on-year of 259.1%.

The firm say continued confidence in the UK car market has prompted growing sales volumes across its new and used retail businesses.

Like-for-like revenues in aftersales increased by 4.3% and like-for-like gross profits grew by £3.8 million in the period, strengthened by solid performance in Vertu’s manufacturer parts supply business.

Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu said: “This has been a transformational year for the Group during which we have expanded significantly and sustainably, gained our first major premium franchise and developed scaled operations with both Land Rover and Volkswagen, and delivered record profits at every level.

“This growth has been driven by both like-for-like growth from our core business and acquisition.

“The Board looks to the future with confidence as reflected in our increased dividend. The new and used car markets remain strong with our core business growing.

“Recently acquired under-performing businesses continue to be turned around. We have a strong pipeline of acquisition opportunities and the financial firepower to execute them and we have further strengthened management in the year to allow the expansion to continue.”

This week the group announced the acquisition of two Lancashire dealerships as part of an £8.2 million deal, and during the year, sale of the group’s heavy truck division yielded £1.9 million of cash.

Detail in the Group’s yearly results highlighted the growing importance of online lead generation to the business, and Vertu remarked that SEO, email marketing and pay-per-click advertising were all now as important as traditional press and radio campaigns.

Vertu operate dealership franchises for brands such as Ford, Seat and Nissan, among others.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .