7:33 am, December 9, 2024
Losses at Eden Motor Group increased by more than 250% last year as the car dealer battled difficult market conditions throughout 2023.
Accounts for Eden Automotive Investments Ltd – the dealer group’s ultimate holding company – show that in the 12 months to the end of December 2023, the group racked up a pre-tax loss of £6.66m.
The figure is significantly higher than the £1.86m loss the firm recorded in 2022, with headwinds, including the impact of the war in Ukraine, taking their toll.
The documents, which were filed with Companies House at the end of last week, show that Eden Automotive Investments Ltd has three active subsidiaries – two of which suffered heavy losses.
First up, Eden Automotive Limited made a pre-tax loss of £4.2m, with Eden Motor Retail Limited racking up further losses of £3.42m.
The group’s technology division – Razoom IT Limited – was the only part of the group to end the year in the black, with a pre-tax profit of £98,811.
The brutal set of results come despite the group’s overall turnover rising from £275.87m in 2022 to £327.42m in 2023.
Of that increased revenue, the sale of new and used vehicles brought in £290m, with sales of new vehicle units increasing from 3,702 to 4,120.
Elsewhere, services raised an extra £20.95m and parts sales £16.46m.
Explaining the difficulties, bosses pointed to industry-wide difficulties, including limited vehicle supply and a ‘competitive labour market for technicians’.
Throughout the year, the group’s staff costs totalled £26.28m, compared to £24.72m last time out, with directors’ remuneration falling from £704,234 to £572,429.
Despite the eye-watering losses, the group’s highest-paid director received a pay rise of £5,209, taking their remuneration to £314,853.
Writing in the accounts, director Graeme Potts said: ‘The trading performance for the group was impacted during the year by limitations in the supply of new vehicles which created lead times that hadn’t been seen before and in turn this reduced the availability of used cars through part exchange.
‘With new vehicle production being targeted at retail customers this created a further limitation ni the availability of used cars as fleets extended the lease periods due to both low utilisation of the vehicles over the pandemic and the new vehicle supply constraints and slowed the replacement cycle of the vehicles.
‘Therefore, the group had to find alternative sources of used vehicle stock, this has affected the volume and profitability of these vehicles.
The group invested heavily into central services in response to these market conditions with the objective to provide customers with a better experience.
‘The conflict in the Ukraine and continued supply chain issues affecting the OEM created significant delays in the supply of replacement parts.
‘This led to a backlog in customer vehicle repairs and required significant investment into courtesy vehicles in order to meet the customers’ needs of mobility.
‘A competitive labour market for technicians affected retention and recruitment, this has affected the sale of hours and led to investment recruitment and training of new colleagues.’
Eden, which is based in Reading, currently runs 24 state-of-the art showrooms representing the likes of Vauxhall, Mazda, Hyundai, Peugeot and MG.
