Dealer group Pendragon saw its pre-tax profit rocket to £27.3m in this year’s third quarter against £3.0m in 2019, it announced today (Oct 22).
In an interim management statement released to the London Stock Exchange for the period from July 1 to September 30, it said the profit had almost entirely offset the losses incurred during the first half as a result of Covid-19.
The year-to-date underlying pre-tax loss has been cut to £3.6m, against £31m for the first half of its financial year.
The franchised UK motor division of the company, whose brands include Stratstone, Evans Halshaw and Car Store, performed ahead of expectations during the quarter.
Car Store’s performance also continued to improve, with a 10.1 per cent used gross margin and an operating profit of £1.0m.
Like-for-like Group Revenue was down by 1.2 per cent, and group new vehicle revenue was down 1.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis.
Group used vehicle revenue, meanwhile was flat on a like-for-like basis, and overall gross profit for the Group was up 9.8 per cent.
Pendragon delayed its half-year results earlier this month, but speaking to Car Dealer at the time, chief executive Bill Berman allayed ‘going concern’ fears and predicted a strong bounce back.
In today’s statement, Berman said: ‘I would like to thank all our associates who have shown great professionalism in responding to the changing operating environment during the period and their hard work has been absolutely critical to our success.
‘We are very pleased with the performance during the quarter, which benefited from the changes we have made to the strategy and to the operating model over the past year.
‘I am confident the business is well positioned to deliver the best result possible for the remaining months of FY20, which remain unpredictable, and beyond, and our focus remains firmly on the successful delivery of our long-term strategy.’
Pendragon added in its statement: ‘We remain cautious about the outlook for Q4 given the ongoing levels of macro-economic uncertainty and therefore are not reinstating guidance for FY20 at this point.’
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