10:25 am, June 14, 2024
Peter Waddell Holdco Ltd’s overdue accounts for 2022 have finally been filed and show it made a post-tax loss of nearly £614,000 – an 82% improvement on its £3.3m deficit in 2021.
That was after it managed to turn a pre-tax loss of almost £1m into a profit of nearly £2m.
Its trading activities are mainly operated via used car supermarket Big Motoring World, which Waddell founded but from which he was ousted as a director in March.
Peter Waddell Holdco’s accounts for the year ended December 31, 2022 were six months overdue as of last month but have now appeared on the Companies House website.
They state that it made a post-tax loss of £613,951 during the year versus a loss of £3.324m in 2021.
Its pre-tax profit for 2022, however, was £1.986m versus a £985,011 loss in 2021, which was on a turnover that rose by 42% from £374.2m to £533m.
Group operating profit, though, was £8.722m – a 155% increase on 2021’s £3.423m, while gross profit rose by 70% from £19.4m to £33m.
During 2022, the company sold part of its controlling stake in Bapchild Motoring World (Kent) Ltd to outside investors [Freshstream] but the company continued to hold a controlling stake in Bapchild.
As of that date, Peter Waddell Holdco and Freshstream investment vehicle Bluebell Cars Holding indirectly owned approximately 63% and 35% of the company respectively.
The strategic report said that Peter Waddell Holdco ‘welcomed an investment from Freshstream LLP’. However, it’s now known that relationships between Waddell and Freshstream soured afterwards.
Waddell, 58, who was a headline speaker at our Car Dealer Live conference in March, is the sole director of Peter Waddell Holdco and as such received £643,443 in remuneration – down from the £1.563m he received the year before.
The average number of employees during the year went up from 537 to 626, and in the report Waddell said: ‘The directors and management team acknowledge and are very grateful for the continued support of funders, suppliers, employees, and customers, and their respective roles they have played in helping the business to deliver such a strong outcome in 2022.’
In July 2022, it launched Big Wants Your Car as part of a move to address the shortage of retail stock, which also saw it extend its purchasing beyond the traditional auction sources to deal directly with alternative suppliers across the wholesale and retail space.
Waddell added that the group had performed well in 2023 with trading out-performing expectations, and this was expected to increase through 2024 thanks to an expansion with the opening of its fifth retail site at Fengate, Peterborough.
But he also warned: ‘The directors are cognisant of the deepening cost-of-living crisis and the impact this may have on consumer demand.
‘With interest rates at their highest level for nearly 15 years and the significant hike in energy prices, disposable incomes are in decline.’
However, Waddell pointed out that used car prices were holding steady this year and he said: ‘The company remains in a strong financial position and has the capabilities to respond to challenges.
‘The CEO has over 30 years of individual experience in the automotive sector. The director is therefore confident of increased profits in 2024 and in expanding operations further, with other sites in the pipeline as the business maintains its appetite for growth and to achieve its long-term business plan.’
Last month, Waddell took Freshstream and Bluebell Cars to the High Court as he sought to have his voting and information rights returned to him as shareholder of the business, and Car Dealer was there for both days of the hearing. A decision is due by July.
Peter Waddell is pictured at top chatting to Car Dealer founder James Baggott during the Car Dealer Live conference in March
