2:06 pm, October 3, 2025
Dealer group Glyn Hopkin made its first pre-tax loss in its history last year, partly due to a heavy reliance on Motability sales and a ‘perfect storm’ of additional costs.
Last year was a milestone year for the 31-year-old company as it transitioned from being a privately run operation to an Employee Ownership Trust in May 2024, but its financials took a nosedive.
Newly published accounts for the year ended December 31, 2024 show turnover for the fell by 12.1% to £492.88m.
Meanwhile, a pre-tax profit of £1.83m in 2023 reversed to a £7.05m pre-tax loss last year – the first lost in its 31 years of business.
Operating profit of £3.24m in 2023 dropped to a loss of £5.23m, while operating margin was -£5.3m compared to 2023’s £3.2m.
Speaking in the accompanying report, directors said: ‘This was the company’s first loss in its 30+ years history. There were however a number of factors contributing to this that need to be considered.
‘General market conditions remained weak, with the economy skirting recession and minimal economical growth for the year, consumer retail confidence remained very weak through the year; utility costs and interest rates remained high; the increase in low margin Motability sales accounting for approximately 20% of the national car market, adversely affected the group at a much higher percentage.
‘The company has some of the highest registering Motability territories in the UK in locations that demand the highest operational costs. The negative effect Motability had on the group’s profitability has been significant.
‘It has had a twofold implication. The group was significantly impacted by several of its geographical locations which are amongst the highest registering Motability centres in the UK where it registers a very high volume of low margin Motability cars. This also impacted aftersales where this Parc is being maintained at much lower labour warranty rates.
‘In addition, some of our brands, in particular Nissan and MG are amongst the highest registering brands for Motability in the UK; the correct decision to exit the loss-making Fiat franchises in 2023 has led to a number of facilities yet to be re-franchised and the need for residual stock clearance.
‘The Renault franchises were loss making in 2024 (The group has now exited Renault at end May 2025 when all UK contracts nationwide come up for renewal) Nissan, where the group has 13 dealerships, remained problematic during the year in part due to the high level of Motability sales but also due the impact of Nissan’s widely publicised global financial issues.’
The report added: ‘Having carried out the sale of the company to the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) the business incurred
significant professional and consultancy costs in achieving this plus increased interest costs on the loan from Barclays which facilitated the EOT; both of these have negatively impacted on profitability.
‘The group also invested a cumulative £4 million on new corporate identity for many of its Nissan dealerships. Decisions were made by the board during H2 2023 to carry out £4 million of Visual Identity works at several of its Nissan Dealerships as part of its Franchise obligations. These works were subsequently carried out during late 2023 and throughout 2024 creating a ‘perfect storm scenario. The £4 million of works resulted in both interest charges and depreciation cost being incurred in 2024 at a time when the market also weakened negatively impacting profitability.’
The business said that as a result it has conducted a ‘strategic review’ to reduce costs, which included the sale of its St Albans investment property to a private investor for £5m in June this year.
During the year Glyn Hopkin walked away from its Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Jeep franchises, and even though this had ‘additional adverse effect’ on its 2024 financial performance, it said the decision was a ‘correct one given the long term decline in market share performance of these brands’.
Moving forwards, Glyn Hopkin – which is one of MG’s largest franchisees – is signing deals with Chinese brands BYD, Chery and Geely.
