7:14 am, November 4, 2022
Dealer group Hartwell recorded pre-tax profit amounting to £3.1m last year.
Latest accounts filled with Companies House show profit before taxation nearly doubled compared to 2020 (£1.6m), thanks in part to strong pent-up demand during the year post-lockdown and healthy used car sales, directors said.
Turnover for the period ended November 30, 2021 came to £225m – a chunky rise on the £184.3m recorded in 2020.
Hartwell, which is EBTDA-ranked 52nd with £4.7m in the Car Dealer Top 200, opened the UK’s first ‘Signature’ Ford dealership and Transit Centre last year.
It said the new facility was a key reason for turnover rising so sharply.
Meanwhile, Hartwell took £495,000 in Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme cash, which was down considerably from the £1.8m the year before.
Hartwell’s Oxford Motorpark used car operation delivered record profitability during 2021 due to ‘pent-up’ used car demand, the business said.
The dealer group has 11 sites representing Ford, Renault and Dacia across the UK.
In December 2021, the business terminated its Fiat franchise at Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
Directors said the business’s strong used car sales in 2021 will result in Hartwell focusing on this area in the future.
‘The success of the used car operation at the Oxford Motorpark site has led to the decision to further increase the capacity of the site and similarly expand the sized of the used car operation at several other sites,’ the end-of-year accounts remarked.
‘Planning permission obtained post year end to erect a vehicle preparation building and a car deck housing 200 vehicles will increase the used car offering at the site and generate the potential for future profitability.’
