11:19 am, October 12, 2026
Eden Motor Group boss Graeme Potts has opened up about the painful decisions he was forced to make to save his business from mounting losses, including closing dealerships, cutting jobs and scrapping investment plans.
The experienced motor trade executive admits the group got several things wrong in 2023, which he described as an ‘absolute disaster’, forcing him to take drastic action to turn the company around.
Speaking exclusively on the Car Dealer Podcast, Potts revealed how he personally took responsibility for the problems and was determined to restore profitability before stepping away from the business he founded in 2008.
The turnaround has since seen Eden return to making healthy profits, with Potts revealing that the group made around £4.35m in 2025 on a turnover of approximately £318m, but getting there required some tough choices.
‘We got a number of things wrong,’ Potts told hosts James Baggott and Jon Reay.
‘I’m the head of the business. I take the blame.
‘It was our annus horribilis and it came when I hit retirement age. It was a blow, to say the least.
‘But I was determined that I wasn’t going to go into retirement with those numbers hanging over my head. We were going to turn things around.’
Potts explained that the problems were not confined to profitability, with the group also facing pressure on its cash reserves after investing too heavily in the business. You can listen to the interview in full on Spotify below or watch it above on YouTube.
He admitted that some of the expansion and development programmes he had personally championed were among the first things to go.
‘The biggest thing that we had to do, and I did it quite quickly, and it was one of the toughest things, was to stop and unwind a number of investment programmes that were entirely down to me,’ he said.
‘I believed they would help us to become a more contemporary and more successful retailer, and it meant losing some people.
‘It meant closing down some development areas in the business.’
The restructuring also involved closing or disposing of three businesses where the group had been unable to stem losses.
Central investment was slashed, senior management was reduced and Potts became more directly involved in the day-to-day running of the company.
The group also tightened its control over stock and cash, with a smaller management team working towards a three-year recovery plan.
Those measures appear to have paid off.
Potts told the podcast that Eden generated EBITDA of more than £7m in 2025, alongside its £4.35m bottom-line profit and turnover of between £317m and £318m.
He now wants the latest performance to become the company’s normal level of profitability rather than an exception.
‘The message that we’re giving to our people is that 2023 was the aberration, 2024 was recovery, 2025 we need to get back to thinking of as the norm in our business,’ he explained.
However, Potts warned that the recovery has not made trading any easier, with the group experiencing a difficult third quarter in 2026 before a stronger September.
He also took aim at manufacturers who he believes have become complacent following the recent growth in new car registrations.
‘We’ve had a little bit of hubris on the part of some OEMs believing that the growth in new car registrations means that everything in the garden is rosy, and a little bit of pullback in marketing pressure and support,’ he said.
‘The marketplace is not quite as buoyant as the headline new vehicle registrations would suggest.
‘At this stage I would not be predicting that we’ll do better than last year, but it certainly will be a black number for Eden for 2026.’
Looking ahead, Potts says Eden is happy with its current franchise portfolio, which now includes seven Chinese-brand outlets, although all operate as dual franchises.
He does not expect to add any more Chinese manufacturers imminently, instead favouring further expansion with existing partners.
The experienced dealer boss also admitted being surprised by the speed at which Chinese manufacturers have gained ground in Britain, describing changing customer loyalty as one of the biggest shifts of his career.
He believes maintaining enough margin to cover rising costs is now the industry’s greatest challenge, particularly for retailers determined to offer customers both digital services and face-to-face support.
And despite having passed retirement age, Potts has no immediate plans to walk away.
He intends to remain hands-on for another two or three years while mentoring the group’s senior management team, before potentially moving into a chairman’s role.
‘I want to be running the business hands-on for a while longer until we get stability in these what I would call normative returns,’ he said.
‘2025 needs to be seen as the norm, not the exception.’