7:21 am, October 11, 2023
Car dealer Hendy Group has booked an improved pre-tax profit for the last financial year, despite bosses raising concerns about ‘turbulent economic and political conditions’.
Accounts published via Companies House show that the dealer enjoyed a fruitful 12 months to the end of December 2022, with profits rising to £20.34m.
The figure represents a 15 per cent increase on 2021, when the firm made £17.56m, and the Covid-hit 2020, when it made just £1.11m.
The documents revealed that the Hampshire-based outfit brought in turnover of just over £1bn, as opposed £931.8m in 2021 and £732.77m in the previous year.
Of that improved revenue, the vast majority (£923.5m) came from vehicle sales with aftersales providing a further £80.5m
As a result of the improvements, the Car Dealer Top 100 firm’s EBITDA figure rose from £22.19m to £25.87m.
The year saw Hendy grow and restructure its dealer network by acquiring Nissan Southampton in August and submitting plans for a new site for the business in nearby Eastleigh, which is due to be completed by the end of the year.
Other major changes included deciding to refinance the the business with two new banks – Barclays and Santander – in order to ‘secure greater flexibility and more potential funding for future strategic plans’.
The board also gave the green light to converting its existing Crawley site into a state-of-the-art Nissan franchise.
Following the expansions, the Paul Hendy-led outfit ended the year representing Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover Nissan, Skoda, Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Iveco Mazda, Dacia, Seat, MG and Lotus.
It also holds the exclusive rights to represent Moke in the UK and operates three non-franchised used vehicle sites.
At the end of 2022 it was also representing both Toyota and Lexus but those partnerships have since ended, with Hendy taking on Vauxhall instead.
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The firm ended the year with £50.04m worth of assets, compared to £40.81 at the end of the previous financial year.
Bosses said they were pleased with the results and said external factors, such as the Ukraine war, had led to challenging market dynamics in 2022.
They also hit out at ‘changing governments and national economic policies’ in an apparent dig at Liz Truss’s disastrous Mini Budget of last September.
In a statement included in the accounts, director Jonathan Moritz said: ‘The 2022 profit before tax was an excellent result achieved despite turbulent economic and political conditions, caused largely by the Ukraine war and by changing governments and national economic policies.
‘The EBITDA of £25.87m was a record for the company. The key aims for 2022 were to deliver another year of strong profitability and strengthen the balance sheet following the impact done by the 2020 pandemic and to manage the cash position effectively enough to be able to redeem the group’s preference shares.
‘These aims were successfully achieved.
‘The company continued to reshape its portfolio of businesses with the acquisition of Nissan Southampton, on August 31 2022, and the commitment to build a new dealership for it in Eastleigh, which is expected to open by the end of 2023.
‘At the year and the company had net assets totalling £50.04m.’
As well as vastly improved profits, the accounts show Hendy also enjoyed an increased gross profit margin of 13 per cent and a return on sales of 2.3 per cent.
The firm paid staff costs totalling just over £67.53m with its highest paid director receiving £1.39m.
