11:59 am, August 8, 2023
Big Motoring World is celebrating its highest number of retail sales after shifting more than 3,600 cars last month.
The Car Dealer Top 100 firm’s bumper sales figure for July was reached with month-on-month increases across all the group’s dealerships, including major improvements at its newest car supermarket in Wimbledon.
The Wimbledon team, pictured above, cleared more than 500 cars – from a 500-vehicle display.
As such, the display stock at Wimbledon will be increasing to 1,000 units as further sales growth is anticipated.
Marketing director Darren Miller said: ‘Big Motoring World is bucking the trend, considering recent reports of other car supermarket-style operations trading at losses, having falling profits or lower sales volumes due to used car supply, the electric vehicle slowdown and the cost-of-living crisis.
‘We are on track for record profits in 2023 and our ambitions are to open more stores over the next 12 months.’
The record sales month is announced as the independent dealer group recently signed off its 2022 accounts.
They are expected to be published on the Companies House website over the coming weeks, but ahead of that, it is reporting an annual turnover of £529.689m for the year ending December 31, 2022 versus £370.955m in 2021 – a 43 per cent increase.
Operating profit has risen sharply as well, going up by 65 per cent from £6.656m in 2021 to £10.953m last year, with EBITDA rocketing by 68 per cent from £9.456m in 2021 to £15.933m in 2022.
Big Motoring World’s Blue Bell Hill site in Chatham
Big Motoring World says its car-buying division BigWantsYourCar.com is now the largest supplier of vehicles to the retail side of the business, valuing more than 16,000 cars directly from consumers last month.
Its geographic collection areas now cover most English counties. The division has seen further growth in its logistics and marketing reach and is set to achieve further growth towards the end of the year.
CEO Peter Waddell said: ‘Our end-to-end technology base gives us higher than average industry conversions to purchase by using automation and AI.
‘We work hard and never give up. The board and I have big dreams and big ambitions in terms of where we are taking this business.
‘We have a clear plan that is proving to work even in these uncertain economic times.’
He added: ‘I’m delighted with our financial results for 2022. We’ve made great traction across last year, and with further growth and expansion planned for this year too, we expect 2023 to grow even further.
‘The team and I have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure everything’s ready for our next expansion phase, details of which we’ll announce as soon as we can.
‘I would like to thank all our teams that have worked tirelessly on our expansion plans, including most recently our Wimbledon car supermarket launch.
‘This saw us take the site from a shell of an old car auction site to a bona fide modern car supermarket selling cars in a matter of just a few months.’
