7:24 am, January 3, 2024
Online new and used car marketplace Heycar went further into the red in 2022 with a pre-tax loss of more than £30m despite turnover increasing, latest documents show.
Its accounts for the year ended December 31, 2022 – filed at Companies House under the name of Mobility Trader UK Ltd – show it racked up a loss before tax of £30,342,975 versus a deficit of £23,650,879 in 2021 – deepening by 28%.
Meanwhile, its operating loss sank by 28% from £23,600,110 to £30,313,645.
Heycar, which was highly commended in the Online Advertiser for Used Cars category at last year’s Car Dealer Power, also said its turnover went up by 27% from £5,941,446 to £7,565,464.
The 2022 turnover figure comprised £6,208,429 from dealer revenue (lead and e-commerce) and £1,357,035 from advertising.
Its directors received nearly twice the remuneration they did the year before – £1,319,990 versus £660,799 – with the highest-paid director awarded a whopping £915,590, which was well over double the £400,161 they got in 2021.
No dividend is to be paid.
It didn’t attribute the losses to anything but in the accompanying strategic report, signed on the board’s behalf by directors John Sweeting and Karen Hilton, the company said: ‘Income improved as the marketing expenditure incurred in the current and previous years began positively impacting revenues.’
The board added: ‘The increase in spend year on year is due to management increasing marketing spend post-Covid to build the brand and grow market share.’
The directors also said: ‘The company is looking to continue to grow the top line in coming years and diminish losses until consistent profits are generated and a greater market share is obtained.
‘This will be achieved through continued investment in lucrative intellectual property opportunities, new revenue streams and reductions in overall marketing costs.’
Advertising expenses for 2022 totalled £21,059,147 versus £15,525,782 in 2021.
The average number of employees including directors went up from 79 to 97.
Mobility Trader UK Ltd’s immediate parent company is the German firm Mobility Trader Holding GmbH, with the ultimate parent being Volkswagen AG, and in the report the directors said the company was ‘susceptible to currency risk owing to the parent company capital contributions which are received in euros’.
Money that is received is immediately converted into sterling to guard against currency fluctuations.
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