8:18 am, May 16, 2014
DEALER group Inchcape has delivered a ‘robust trading performance’ for the first four months of 2014.
Group revenue was £2.212bn, up by 2.5 per cent while like-for-like revenue was up by 0.8 per cent.
Inchcape says demand for new cars was ‘robust overall’ and ‘ahead of last year as we continue to benefit from sustained growth in the premium and luxury segments’.
Meanwhile the company’s used car and aftersales activities, which represent circa 60 per cent of the Group’s gross profit, performed well and ahead of last year’s performance.
Andre Lacroix, group CEO of Inchcape plc said: ‘Inchcape has delivered a robust trading performance in the first four months of the year. Benefiting from broad-based growth across our markets and categories, we continue to expect to deliver a robust constant currency performance in 2014.
‘The Group has a track record of delivering premium growth with premium returns. This is a testament to the quality of our business model, our differentiated Customer 1st strategy and strong organisational discipline underpinned by our industry leading processes, which enable our operations to transform revenue growth into sustained earnings growth and strong cash generation.’
Inchcape says its expects to deliver a ‘robust constant currency performance’ in 2014. A statement said: ‘Notwithstanding the competitive pressure on vehicle margins in some of our markets, we are well positioned to take advantage of the attractive growth prospects in the premium and luxury segments across our markets.
‘The Group remains firmly committed to its Top 5 Priorities of growing market share, growing Aftersales, improving margin, controlling working capital and being selective about capital expenditure investments.’
