8:10 am, August 27, 2025
Car dealer Citygate Automotive has seen its profits almost entirely wiped out following a ‘disappointing’ and ‘extremely challenging’ year.
Accounts recently published via Companies House show that the franchised dealer group made a pre-tax profit of £0.21m in the year ending December 31, 2024.
The figure is a whopping 95% down on the previous year’s result, when the retailer pocketed £4.41m before tax.
Turnover also slumped by almost £10m, with revenues falling to £414.84m from £424.01 amidst ‘ongoing consumer uncertainty’.
The decline comes despite an increase in new vehicle sales, with the firm shifting 7,281 units, compared to 6,982 in 2023. However, used car sales did slip from 7,571 units to 7,320.
The difficult year was compounded by the fact that the car dealer ended the trading period with net debt of £0.9m, having previously had £1.3m in cash reserves.
Net assets also dipped slightly from £17.3m to £17.7m.
Reflecting on the year, bosses pointed to wider economic challenges, including a change in government, interest rate uncertainty and pressure on customers’ incomes.
Writing in the accounts, director Jonathan Smith said: ‘The directors consider the 2024 result was disappointing but acceptable given the extremely challenging macroeconomic environment and ongoing consumer uncertainty.
‘The change in UK government, fiscal tightening, interest rate uncertainty and pressure on residual incomes has caused retail consumers to be cautious when considering purchasing a new vehicle.
‘As a result, the national sales of new vehicles to private consumers declined 8.7% in 2024, the lowest level since the Covid impacted market of 2020, and only one in 10 customers purchased a new electrified car in 2024.
‘Given the traditionally strong retail customer focus at Citygate, this retail market decline had a significant impact on the company’s performance in 2024.’
He added: ‘The profit before tax of £0.2m at 0.05% turnover is the lowest level since the financial crisis in 2007/2008, and was £4.2m lower than 2023, as the impact of lower gross profits, higher expenses and lower interest income flowed through.’
Expansion shows signs of hope
Despite the struggles, there was some good news for Citygate, which was still able to grow its network of showrooms, throughout 2024.
The year saw the firm open new franchise points for Seat and Cupra in Twickenham and Kia in Watford.
Meanwhile, the group’s Volkswagen Watford showroom underwent a complete refurbishment, which also saw Skoda join the site.
The group also relocated its Skoda Twickenham branch to its Skoda West London site as it continued to upgrade its network.
At the end of the accounting period, Citygate represented Kia, GWM, Skoda, VW, Seat and Cupra at 21 franchise points across Greater West London and the Home Counties.
