11:57 am, January 15, 2026
Shareholders in Lithia UK received a staggering £50m in dividends in 2024, despite the dealer group axing hundreds of jobs in a major cost-cutting exercise.
That is according to new accounts, recently published via Companies House, which show that Lithia UK Holding Limited made a pre-tax profit of £20.07m in the 12 months to the end of December 2024.
That figure was well up on the previous year’s result, when the group made £5.63m.
The year was dominated by the firm’s £397m takeover of Pendragon’s motor and leasing divisions in February 2024, which was followed by swathes of job losses and cuts.
Just months after adding the 160 dealerships to its UK network, Lithia cut around 250 jobs by killing off the CarStore used car supermarket brand.
That was followed by the closure of an Evans Halshaw Ford site Northwich and a Stratstone Mercedes dealership in Bradford before it emerged that US bosses were looking to save up to $150m with sweeping job cuts.
The downsizing continued throughout 2025 with bosses confirming six dealership closures in February before more staff were put at risk of redundancy in October.
It has now emerged that while those cuts were going on, Lithia’s shareholders were pocketing millions.
The recent accounts reveal that over the course of the year, the directors paid a bumper dividend of £50m, having not paid anything in 2023. In order to make the payment possible, the company first reduced its share capital by £50m.
The news is unlikely to please employees at the company, some of whom labelled recent cut cuts as a ‘joke’.
Prior to agreeing the deal for the Pendragon sites, Lithia also acquired all former Jardine showrooms in takeover worth around £300m.
The group’s automotive retail portfolio now contains two major subsidiary companies – the former Jardine business which is now registered as Lithia Motors Group UK Limited and the ex-Pendragon operations, which are now Pendragon Newco 2 Limited.
Individual accounts for those firms have also been published which reveal that the former Jardine business saw its pre-tax profits plummet by more than 99% in 2024, from £15.09m to £137,000.
That is despite new car sales rising from 24,059 units to 27,247 in 2024, and used car retail sales going from 19,299 to 21,217.
The firm’s turnover also climbed from £1.89bn to £1.99bn – a rise of close to 5.5% – despite operating margins dropping from 1.6% to 0.8% and return on sales going from 1% to 0.2%.
Elsewhere Pendragon Newco 2 Limited made a heavily reduced profit of £19.8m in its own shortened 11-month accounting year to the end of 2024.
The figure was well down on the previous year’s £88m profit, with turnover also falling from £4.31bn to £3.49bn.
Reflecting on the period covered by the accounts, chief financial officer Richard Thomas said: ‘On 31 January 2024, the group’s holding company, Lithia UK Holding Limited, further increased their footprint in the UK motor retail vehicle market by acquiring the Motor and Leasing divisions of Pendragon PLC for a total consideration of £397m.
‘The acquisition added around 160 locations to the UK busıness and strengthens the overall retail opportunity that the combined group can offer.
‘This further expands Lithia’s UK franchise representation by increasing the existing dealer network and also adds BYD, Citroen, Dacia, DS, Fiat, Ford, Genesıs, Hyundaı, Kia, MG, Peugeot, Renault and Vauxhall as well as an established contract hire and leasing business, Pendragon Vehicle Management.
‘Following the acquisition, the newly formed group has consolidated the back office functions as well as integratıng systems leading to significant restructuring costs and synergies during the year.
‘As part of the wider group’s strategic growth plans the group added a new franchise representation, Lotus, within its existing prestigious used car store in Bracknell and also divested two underperforming stores during the year.
‘The group’s portfolio of businesses has remained steady year on year with the growth in top line being due to stronger volumes in both new and used cars, together with model sales mix changes and growth in aftersales recovery rates and hours.’
Car Dealer has approached Lithia for comment.
