8:43 am, October 19, 2026
Dealer group Citygate Automotive plunged to a £4m loss last year, despite rising new and used car sales.
Accounts recently filed via Companies House show that the Middlesex-based retailer slipped to a pre-tax loss of £4.05m in the 12 months to the end of last December.
The result comes after the firm posted a small profit of £217,670 in 2024, having previously made the Car Dealer Top 100.
The most recent set of annual accounts show that the car dealer turned over £435.32m last year, up from £414.84m 12 months earlier.
Vehicle sales also improved, with the group shifting 7,679 new and 7,729 used cars throughout the year, up from 7,281 and 7,320 respectively.
Bosses have put the slump in profit down to a ‘challenging market environment’ and have ‘taken major actions to reshape its portfolio’ as a result.
As part of those changes, Citygate acquired Volkswagen Cars in St Albans from Marshall Motor Group, while also converted its Twickenham Seat and Cupra dealership into an aftersales site serving Volkswagen, Skoda, Seat and Cupra customers.
The group also ended retail sales at its Chalfont VW site and sold its loss-making Seat Reading was site to Marshall. Meanwhile, its GWM franchise in High Wycombe is due to be terminated in 2026.
Writing in the accounts, directors said that the loss before tax was Citygate’s lowest result since the financial crisis of 2007/2008.
Director Jonathan Moritz said: ‘The 2025 result was disappointing in a challenging market environment.
However, during the year the business has taken major actions to reshape its portfolio of dealerships, reduce its cost base, and ensure it has engaged the right people to drive a recovery, which has resulted in a much stronger result in the first half of 2026.
‘The key challenges in the market relate to downward pressure on gross margins due both to the government’s zero emission vehicles mandate and the arrival of many new Chinese brands with cheap costs of production, at the same time as there is major inflationary pressure through rent, rates and people costs, which are particular pressure points for automotive retail.’
He added: ‘The cost base rose by 9.5%. The key issues were the amount of new vehicle stock, which caused substantial increases in stock funding charges, storage and movement costs, the impact of major increases employers’ national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage, and start-up costs in the vehicle leasing brokerage business.
The loss before tax of £4.05m at 0.9% turnover is the lowest level since the financial crisis in 2007/2008, and was £4.3m lower than 2024, as the impact of gross margin pressure and a higher cost base flowed through to the final result.’
Elsewhere, the accounts show that Citygate’s overall gross margin slipped from 12.4% to 12.1% with net assets fell from £17.3m to £13.2m.
Despite the heavy losses, the firm paid £400,000 in dividends during the year, although directors did not recommend a further dividend.
Meanwhile, the firm’s average workforce rose to an average of 647 employees, with staff costs coming in at an increased £32.94m. At the same time, directors’ remuneration rose from £458,737 to £504,542.
Citygate ended the year representing Kia, GWM, Seat, Cupra, Skoda, Volkswagen across 29 franchise points in Greater West London and the Home Counties.