8:52 am, November 29, 2024
Dealer group Caffyns has enjoyed a strong first half of the year with profits soaring and revenues rising.
Figures released by the publicly-listed car dealer, via the London Stock Exchange (LSE), show a pre-tax profit of £213,000 in the six months to September 30.
The result marks a major improvement on the same point last year, when the firm made £44,000 – a rise of more than 380%.
The impressive turnaround was achieved on revenues of £137.74m, up 3% on the £134.25m achieved in the same period last year.
It comes after Caffyns finished 89th in the most recent edition of the Car Dealer Top 100 list, which was published yesterday.
The most recent documents, filed with the LSE this morning (Nov 29), show that the group’s underlying EBITDA just to just over £3m, compared to £2.56m in H1 last year.
The measure, standing for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, is how the Car Dealer Top 100 is judged.
Elsewhere in the Caffyns results, it is revealed that new car deliveries rose by 11% from the prior year period.
When it came to the used market, volumes rose by 5%, despite struggles around getting the right stock.
Reacting to the performance CEO Simon Caffyn said: ‘I am pleased that, despite increased costs and a difficult trading environment, we have improved our underlying EBITDA and profit before tax.’
A spokesman for the group added: ‘Our profit performance from new cars and aftersales in the period was strong although used car profitability remained severely constrained, mainly due to the continuing scarcity of supply of appropriately priced, one- to four-year-old cars.
‘Customer demand for such cars remained robust but we were unable to fully pass on the increases to purchase prices resulting in lower margins.
‘Taken together, total gross margins increased from the previous period by £1.3m, or 8%.
‘However, inflationary pressures on costs remained elevated and, in particular, the increase to the National Minimum Wage in April placed significant upward pressure on staffing costs, which alone increased by £0.7m in the period.
‘Utility costs remained at highly elevated levels in the period although our fixed term electricity and gas contracts ended on 30 September with unit pricing on the new electricity contract more than halving and with gas prices down by one-third.
‘Funding charges also remained at high levels although, in time, further reductions in interest base rates should result in these costs receding.’
