8:30 am, May 29, 2025
Auto Trader Group saw healthy rises in pre-tax profit and revenue over the last 12 months, in which it rolled out a suite of AI products for dealers and scaled up its customer-focussed ‘Deal Builder’ service.
Published this morning via the London Stock Exchange, the results for the year ended March 31, 2025, saw strong gains almost across the board, with the firm saying last year allowed it to ‘strengthen it market-leading position’.
Pre-tax profit for the Auto Trader Group rose by 9% from £345.2m to £375.7m, and adjusted EBITDA came to £393.9m – up 5%.
Group revenue jumped by 5% from £570.9m to £601.1m, led by Auto Trader making £564.8m during the year, up 7%. Autorama, however, saw revenue slipped by 12% to £36.3m.
During the past 12 months, Auto Trader Group managed to narrow losses at its Autorama division from £8.8m to £4.3m. The improvement is in line with comments the firm made 12 months ago when it said it expected ‘operating losses to reduce year-on-year’.
Group operating profit margin rose by 2% points to 63%, while Auto Trader profit margins slipped by 1% point to 70%.
Average revenue per retailer per month was up 5% (or £133) to £2,854 on average (2024: £2,721), with the company saying this was driven by ‘a positive contribution from the price and product levers, with stock being negative’.
Stock on Auto Trader’s platform was up by 1% to 449,000 cars thanks to a higher number of private listings, while the average number of dealers using Auto Trader increased by 2% to 14,013.
New lease vehicle deliveries were down from 7,847 to 6,268 due to supply constraints in the new car market.
The last 12 months saw Auto Trader roll out a raft of new AI-enabled tools called ‘Co-Driver’, with the company saying it has seen ‘consistently high levels of engagement from customers using this product since launch’.
Auto Trader also said the number of deals through its Deal Builder service trebled last year.
Some 49,000 deals were made using the service, which sees car buyers being able to value their part exchange, apply for finance and reserve a car. The number of dealers now using the service rose to around 2,000.
Auto Trader said it now planned to make Deal Builder part of its ‘core advertising proposition’.
The company said the year saw it ‘strengthen’ its position in the market with over 75% of all minutes spent on an automotive classified site. It also recorded a 5% increase in cross platform visits to 81.6m per month (2024: 77.5m).
Commenting on the results, Auto Trader CEO Nathan Coe said: ‘Our growth is testament to the hard work from everyone at Auto Trader to deliver value for all our partners.
‘While the car market generally is in good health, retailers face headwinds from shifting market dynamics, which we’re committed to helping them navigate using the strength of our data and technology.’
He added: ‘Consumer behaviour is changing. That’s why we’ve invested in the technologies to help all retailers confidently meet buyer expectations.
‘And it’s for the same reason that we’ve made the decision to make Deal Builder available on all vehicles on Auto Trader. This means that all our partners will now be able to benefit from receiving more deals from highly engaged and ready to purchase buyers, rather than simply leads alone, helping to drive their performance through unique buyer and vehicle insights.
‘We believe these innovations, along with our other investments this year are the most effective way we can continue to deliver more value to our partners.’
Auto Trader Group said it has returned £275.7m to shareholders (2024: £250.3m) through £187.3m of share buybacks and dividends of £88.4m. It proposes a final dividend of 7.1p per share (2024: 6.4p per share) giving total dividends of 10.6p per share for the year (2024: 9.6p per share).
Looking ahead, Auto Trader said it expected dealer revenue growth to improve to between 5 and 7%, a continued reduction in Autorama losses, Auto Trader operating profit margins to maintain at ‘current levels’ and Group operating profit margins to improve due to reduced Autorama losses.
