7:22 am, September 4, 2025
Bosses at family-run car dealer Holdcroft say they are ‘proud’ of the group’s performance, despite a dip in profits for the second year running.
The new and used car dealer has filed its annual accounts with Companies House, showing a pre-tax profit of £7.69m in the 12 months to the end of last December.
The figure represents a 4.36% drop on the previous year’s result, when directors made headlines for awarding themselves a 345% pay rise, despite tumbling profits.
The result comes off the back of falling new and used car sales, with the franchise group generating a decreased £745.5m in turnover.
In the year as a whole, T.G Holdcroft (Holdings) Limited, sold 5,354 new cars to retail customers, compared to 5,717 in 2023. Used retail sales also fell from 9,667 units to 9,314.
Despite the falls, EBIDTA – the metric by which the Car Dealer Top 100 is measured – actually rose from £12.3m to £12.9m.
Reflecting on the trends of 2024, bosses pointed to ‘industry-wide turbulence, low consumer confidence and high inflation’.
They also admitted that ‘a certain apathy from retail consumers towards EV products’ needed to be resolved by ‘manufacturers and dealer partners alike’.
Director Christopher Greenhall wrote: The board of directors is proud to present the results for 2024, a year characterised by industry-wide turbulence, low consumer confidence and high inflation.
‘Despite margin pressure in both new and used vehicle markets, the group delivered a resilient financial performance.
‘Our focus has been on delivering a premium quality service to all our customers across the breadth of all outlets and the manufacturers that we represent, ensuring that as many of these interactions as possible are positive.
‘It has again been a challenging year within the retail motor sector with some significant factors making huge impacts to the overall volume of retail transactions undertaken.
‘Our new retail volumes have reduced year on year by 6.35% and used retail down by 3.65%, whilst in contrast, the sales via our corporate department have increased by 18.36%.
‘There does still appear to be a certain apathy from retail consumers towards EV products which manufacturers and dealer partners alike will need to address.’
‘We must acknowledge that the landscape is changing’
At the end of the accounting period, Holdcroft operated 30 franchise sites for 12 different brands.
The year saw Omoda and Jaecoo join the likes of Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, Renault and Dacia in the Holdcroft stable, with the firm ‘remaining open to expansion with new opportunities’.
Bosses were particularly pleased with the group’s Renault division’s financial results, which reported turnover of £143m for the year amid improved retail sales, gross margins and gross profit.
Elsewhere, employee costs came in at £30.5m and there was no repeat of last year’s attention-grabbing wage increases for directors, whose remuneration came in at a reduced total of £492,703.
Speaking about the challenges of the years ahead, bosses say that the group remains ‘on a very firm footing’ despite ‘changes in the automotive landscape’.
Greenhall added that the firm’s performance in 2024 ranks among its ‘best annual achievements in recent years’.
He said: ‘When reflecting on the financial performance of 2024 we are extremely proud of the outcome and believe this sits amongst our best annual achievements in recent years.
‘The journey through 2024 has been a very challenging one and given the increases in costs, driven principally by interest rates and inflation, we feel that the company is on a very firm footing as we tackle the changes in the automotive landscape that the next few years will bring.
‘The increasing number of new entrants into the UK vehicle market will no doubt destabilise the current incumbents and give a fresh choice to the consumer.
‘We must acknowledge that the landscape is changing, and our organisation has always been agile and able to adapt quickly and open to new opportunities which will strengthen the company and add further options to our customer base.’
