8:53 am, July 9, 2026
Lookers has set its sights on becoming ‘the number one dealership group in the UK’ after announcing improved profits in its latest set of annual accounts.
Since its takeover by the Canadian Global Auto Holdings in October 0f 2023, the firm has found itself the subject of a number of negative headlines, following a number of cutbacks and redundancies.
Despite the flak, the approach now seems to be paying off after Lookers posted improved profits for the second year running.
Accounts, recently filed via Companies House, show that Lookers Limited made a pre-tax profit of £58.5m in 2025 – up 33.9% on 2024’s £43.7m.
The figure was made possible by improved new and used car sales, which resulted in a 1.5% rise in revenue to £4.35bn throughout the year.
Representing 39 brands at 137 trading locations across the UK and Ireland, Lookers sold 105,814 new vehicles throughout 2025, up 9.3% on the previous accounting period.
Despite the improvement, new vehicle sales did generate less revenue than in 2024, sliding from £2.02bn to £1.98bn.
Elsewhere, used vehicles sales increased by 2.3% to 76,754 units, bringing in an improved £1.75bn of revenue to the company.
The results were also helped by further cost-cutting measures, with ‘operational efficiency and cost saving initiatives’ leading to a reduction in underlying operating costs of £14.6m.
Measures included closing its head office in Altrincham after more than 50 years in Manchester and relocating to Stoke-on-Trent.
The year also saw the surprising departure of managing director James Brearley, who left the group in October of 2025.
Reflecting on the year, chair Alex Smith said the period had been ‘strong’ for Lookers as he outlined his lofty ambitions for the firm going forward.
‘The Lookers ambition is to be the number one dealership group in the UK, delivering value for all our stakeholders,’ he wrote in the accounts.
‘The group aims to grow our sales and servicing volumes, deliver strong margins, achieve high customer satisfaction scores and be the partner of choice for our manufacturer partners.
‘This ambition will be delivered through operational optimisation, executing core business disciplines and delivering consistency across all our dealerships; leveraging technology to improve customer experience, productivity and analytical capability; expanding brand partnerships via new and existing franchise relationships; developing aftersales and ancillary revenue streams and maximising our opportunity in the growing fleet and leasing channels, leveraging our well-placed position.’
‘2025 was another strong year for the group,’ he added. ‘Operational efficiency and cost saving initiatives led to a reduction in underlying operating costs of £14.6m, which, combined with decreased finance costs of £3.2m, offset a gross profit decrease of £16.1m and grew underlying profit before tax compared to prior year by £1.7m.
‘The group delivered significant growth in profit before tax of £14.8m, or 33 9%, resulting from a reduction in net non underlying costs, in large part due to gains on property disposals of £8.1m.’
Elsewhere, the accounts show that employee costs rose from £277.3m to £280.2m, despite the group’s average number of employees dropping from 6,003 to 5,872.
At the same time, directors remunerations soared from just £56,000 to £2.35m, while the board did not declare any dividend during the year and did recommend any further payments.
