7:12 am, November 7, 2023
Marshall Motor Group saw its profits before tax fall drastically to £42.9m for 2023, its latest accounts reveal.
The company – now owned by Constellation Automotive Group after being snapped off the stock market in 2022 – generated revenues of £3.73bn in the financial year ending March 31, 2023.
This is down slightly on the £3.76bn revenue generated in the year before when profits hit £84.9m.
However, the year prior was a 15-month accounting period as Marshall brought its annual reporting date into line with its new owners.
That said, comparable monthly profit before tax generated by the group dropped from £5.6m in 2022, to £3.5m in 2023.
Marshall blamed a variety of factors on the drop in performance in its annual report, just filed at Companies House.
These included the ‘significant unwind of market tailwinds’ and the end of ‘unprecedented’ trend of used car values appreciating.
Expenses for the group also rose – an impact of the Motorline acquisition that is reflected for a full year in the accounts.
That deal was one of the last previous CEO Daksh Gupta signed before he left the company.
Again comparing the previous 15-month period to 2023, Marshall said new car sales fell 14.1% from 68,276 in 2022 to 58,680 in 2023.
The dealer group’s new car retail sales were down 8.3% on its previous year. That’s compared to a retail new car market that was up 2% in 2022, and up 0.4% in Q1 2023, according to SMMT statistics.
Used car sales actually increased 0.3% to 77,551 units against a market that declined 8.5% in 2022.
Used car revenue accounted for £2bn of the group’s total, new cars generated £1.4bn while aftersales added £388.3m to the total. Aftersales margins decreased considerably from 47.6% in 2022 to 41.2% in 2023.
Detailing its acquisitions and disposals during the year, the group said it disposed of or closed six dealerships – Scarborough Honda, Leeds Volvo, Ipswich Kia, Scunthorpe Kia, Gatwick TPS (trade parts specialists) and Brighton TPS.
After the year end, the group said it had also sold all its Toyota and Lexus franchises – 19 businesses in total – to Steven Eagell, FRF and Listers. No reason was given for the sale or how much they were sold for.
At the end of the year – which doesn’t include the Toyota and Lexus disposals – Marshall had 140 franchise sites representing 23 brands. The firm said it trades in 37 counties.
It has eight trade parts specialists, three used car centres, three body shops and two PDI centres.
An interim dividend of £20m was paid for the 2023 financial year. The group also made a charitable donation of £69,000 during the year.
The highest-paid director took home £5.2m during the year, including £3.6m of share options.
Constellation Automotive Group has reported a pre-tax loss of £140.7m for the same period in separate accounts also just published at Companies House.
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