7:19 am, September 13, 2024
Perrys Group has posted a pre-tax profit of under £2m for last year – a drop of nearly 50% on 2022.
Newly published accounts show that for the year ended December 31, 2023, the Car Dealer Top 100 firm made £1.899m profit before tax.
That was 48.2% down on 2022’s £3.664m and continued the decline recorded for that year when its pre-tax profit fell by 69.5% on 2021’s £11.996m.
Revenue at the new and used car dealer group rose last year, however, by 23.5% from £643.019m to £794.154m, while gross margin went down from 13.1% to 11.3%.
The accompanying strategic report, approved on behalf of the board by financial director Chris Thexton, told of an underlying retail market that was down.
It said that – along with many companies – Perrys had faced limited availability of resources, a restricted used car supply plus wage inflation pressures as well as other external increases in costs, including rates going up by £500,000 after the retail and hospitality relief scheme ended in 2022.
High interest rates also took their toll at Perrys, which can trace its roots back to 1908 and now has more than 50 sites across England.
Meanwhile, under the exceptional costs section, it stated that during the year, the group paid £177,000 in lieu of notice for an unnamed director. The sum included pension and taxes.
The directors said the group, which has its registered office in Northampton and whose franchises include Mazda, Ford and MG, delivered a strong performance during the first half of 2023.
However, the third quarter proved to be more challenging, thanks to retail demand for new and used cars dropping and used car values coming under pressure.
Retail sales of new cars rose by 23.2% year on year from 8,600 units to 10,593 units, while those of used cars went up by 8.6% from 15,088 to 16,389.
Aftersales revenue rose by 13.2% from £76m the year before to £86m.
Dividends of £2m were paid during the year – the same as in 2022 – and the average monthly number of employees went down by 100 to 1,387.
Meanwhile, directors’ emoluments totalled £1.991m – down on 2022’s £2.023m – with the highest-paid director receiving £617,000, which was down £1,000 on the previous year.
Group net assets at the end of the year stood at £77.4m, versus £78.2m in 2022.
The report said the group had traded ahead of budget up to the end of March 2024. However, new commercial vehicle supply was still an issue and had affected the commercial departments – Ford in particular.
This is expected to get better during the second half of 2024, though.
Used volumes have improved year on year, it said, but the reduced new retail market had meant fewer part-exchanges and Perrys was having to find used stock elsewhere at lower margins.
Pictured via Google Street View is Perrys’ Mazda showroom in Canterbury
