8:27 am, May 8, 2023
Car dealer group John Grose clocked up £8.3m pre tax profits in 2022 – despite ‘frustrations’ caused by car maker Stellantis.
The Ford, Kia, Peugeot, Citroen and DS dealer, based in Suffolk, chalked up a record year in its accounts for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Revenue rose to £188m – up 18 per cent on the year before – as ‘demand recovered to pre-pandemic levels’.
Operating profit of £8.3m was a record for the firm and up 32 per cent on the £6.3m made the year before.
John Grose Group was 68th in the Car Dealer Top 100 list of most profitable dealers last year.
Dividends of £1.6m were paid to shareholders during the financial year while the highest paid director in the business earned £1.1m.
However, despite the ‘outstanding results’ from departments across the business, chairman and managing director Ian Twinley said issues with Stellantis’ merger of IT platforms and the rationalisation of supply chains was ‘a major source of frustration to the franchised networks’.
He said: ‘This is likely why the Stellantis brands did not fare well in the 2022 UK dealer attitude surveys along with market share pressures and poor dealer profitability.’
John Grose Group operates four Ford dealerships and says despite the manufacturer’s plans to consolidate its network to push more volume through its remaining dealers, the group does not see this as a threat.
Twinley said: ‘Ford has since announced the timing and scale of its business transformation, which includes the move to an agency model. The planned changes are not seen as a risk to the business.’
He also added that the cost of living crisis had not impacted the business quite as much as feared.
‘Stability in the financial markets and a positive economic environment are hugely important for consumer confidence when related to significant purchases like motor vehicles,’ he said.
‘Low consumer confidence is one of the greatest risks to the company, but it appears that despite the cost of living pressures, consumer confidence remains positive.’
The family group has been involved in the motor trade since 1888 and is heavily involved in its local community.
In the annual report the group said it had loaned six vehicles to transport aid to Ukraine and bring back refugees.
The firm also provides cars to colleges and schools in Suffolk for students to work on and offers many students work experience across its business.
‘We continue to loan vehicles to provide support in the UK and to move people to community events,’ added Twinley.
‘The staff are hugely proud of the community initiatives that so many of us undertake.’
Frustrations in the Stellantis network boiled over into the open at the end of last year when dealers said they were being forced to register cars stuck in ports.
Boss Paul Willcox told Car Dealer that its dealers had been pushed to register cars that hadn’t arrived in showrooms in an attempt to ‘secure future production capacity at factories’.
Main image: John Grose Group Ford dealership in Ipswich. Credit: Google Streetview
