8:13 am, September 14, 2026
Family-run car dealer Vospers has announced a pre-tax loss for 2025, with bosses admitting the firm has gone through ‘another challenging year’.
Accounts recently published via Companies House show that the Devon-based saw its losses deepen last year, having also ended 2024 in the red.
The documents show that the firm made a pre-tax loss of £2.07m in the 12 months to the end of December 2025.
It comes after a loss of £490,879 in 2024, with directors pointing to a ‘difficult new vehicle market and ongoing inflationary cost pressures’ as significant reasons for the slump.
EBITDA – the measure by which the Car Dealer Top 100 is ranked – also declined, going from £2.6m to £1.8m.
Elsewhere, the group’s interest bill rose sharply, with interest payable climbing from £2.34m to £2.93m. Directors said this was due to continued high levels of interest-bearing new vehicle stock.
The accounts also reveal that administrative expenses increased by £1.6m to £35.9m, although this included a one-off £516,570 bad debt charge. Excluding that cost, the group said its administrative expenses increased by around 3%, broadly in line with inflation.
Despite higher sales, Vospers said overall margins on new and used vehicles fell by 0.2% during the year.
Average headcount also dropped from 595 to 560, while total payroll remained broadly flat at £21.5m and directors remuneration came in at £767,422.
Despite the struggles, there were some reasons to be positive, with turnover rising from £268.86m to £295.86 – an improvement of just over 10%.
Vospers also made a number of changes to its dealer portfolio, including the acquisition of County Garage (Barnstaple) Limited. The firm also added new Ford and MG sites later in the year.
On the flip side, the group ended partnerships with Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Abarth, Jeep, Seat, Cupra and Mazda.
With Omoda, Jaecoo and MG now among its stable of OEM partners, the group says that Chinese brands now account for one in 10 of its car sales.
Writing in the accounts, the board backed the firm to bounce back and be profitable once more in 2026.
‘The group has had another challenging year with a difficult new vehicle market and ongoing inflationary cost pressures,’ director Peter Vosper said.
‘Used vehicles performed similarly to the previous year, purchasing good quality stock remains a challenge for a number of motor traders and we expect to improve our profitability in 2026.
‘Aftersales profitability increased year on year however will be more challenging as we build vehicle parcs with our new partners.
‘To the end of June 2026 we have traded profitably and the private retail car market has grown as a result of more competitive retail offers in order to meet government ZEV targets.’
He added: ‘We have a very experienced board of directors which ensures that the business is able to navigate through the changing economic landscape.
‘Collectively the board of directors has close to over two hundred years motor trade experience and we are well equipped to deal with the ongoing challenges that continue into 2026.’
Vosper also took aim at the impact of the ZEV mandate on the group, and backed calls for more charging infrastructure in regional areas such as the South West.
He said: ‘The adoption of electric vehicles has improved year on year although it failed to meet the target set by the government for it’s ZEV mandate signalling the ongoing challenges for retail consumers to move from internal combustion engines completely.
‘Plug-in Hybrid is in greater demand and we would urge the government to consider all technologies in their fiscal policies to ensure increased uptake of these green vehicles.
‘There are ongoing challenges in terms of charging infrastructure particularly in the more regional areas such as the South West where more needs to be done on off street charging and fast charging hubs.
‘We need a cross party approach to providing low cost charging solutions for those that do not have a home charger, solar or battery storage and we would welcome a reduction to the VAT rate on public charging.’