10:02 am, August 15, 2017
MARSHALL Motor Holdings Plc is celebrating yet another record result with underlying pre-tax profit for the first half of this year up by 32.9 per cent to £18.6m.
Across the board, the group enjoyed increases in unit sales for new cars, which were up 32.7 per cent, and used cars (up 39.7 per cent), while aftersales revenues went up by 43.1 per cent for the six months until June 30, 2017.
Like-for-like new car unit sales were down 0.4 per cent. However, it’s not a figure to be sniffed at, with the UK new car retail market dropping 4.8 per cent.
Group chief executive Daksh Gupta told Car Dealer Magazine: ‘We’ve delivered another set of record results for the group, which we’re obviously very pleased with. Record results at both at revenue and PBT level. Revenue is up 43.7 per cent, clearly as a result of the Ridgeway acquisition, but what we’re particularly pleased with is our like-for-like performance. That was up 6.7 per cent.
‘Profit before tax at £18.6m was up 32.9 per cent. Like-for-like performance, when you look at our retail business, we enjoyed really strong growth across all of our key revenue streams.’
The strength of sales was credited in part to the brand partners that Marshall Group has in its portfolio. With a strong mix of German and premium brands, customer retention levels have remained high.
‘If you think about the strength of the German brands and Jaguar Land Rover in this country, they now account for 40 per cent of the market,’ said Gupta. ‘Our portfolio reflects the fact we’ve got 62 per cent in that category.
‘Interestingly when you look at Volvo, which is increasing its premium position and its position in terms of EVs and hybrid technologies, 70 per cent of our portfolio falls in that category.
‘All of this is good news, because if you think of the way consumers buy vehicles it’s very much PCP. If you look at the first half of the year in terms of PCP for our business, 83 per cent of our customers were in a PCP. On used that’s now up to 63 per cent. That’s 66,000 customers in a PCP, up 8,000, and I think we’ve got opportunities to grow that further.’
Despite used and aftersales both growing considerably in the year to June 30 for Marshall, Gupta still thinks it can continue to grow in these areas.
He said: ‘In terms of used I’m really pleased but we’ve got more opportunity to drive further growth there. It’s hard to criticise an eight per cent growth but I still look at what’s happening in the market and I think we’ve got opportunities to grow that to double digit.
‘Our aftersales performance never ceases to amaze me also. Time and time again we’re asked if we can improve and I always think there’s no way, but we saw a 40 basis point move there!’
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