8:42 am, January 6, 2023
Automotive investment firm Marubeni saw its profits soar to more than £17m in 2022 with bosses putting rises down to ‘extreme trading conditions’.
The company, which owns dealer groups RRG and Norton Way, operates 28 showrooms across the UK representing the likes of Lexus, Toyota and Mazda.
Accounts published via Companies House show that the outfit experienced a boom in both turnover and profit during a highly successful 12 months to the end of March 2022.
The documents reveal that revenues rose from £490.26m in 2021 to £685.2m just a year later – an impressive improvement of almost 40 per cent.
Of that turnover, the majority came from retail vehicle sales, which accounted for £499.66m. Fleet vehicle sales brought in 131,119; service and repairs raised £47.18m and commissions made the firm just under £8.2m.
Overall, Marubeni made a pre-tax profit of £17.2m compared to £7.5m in 2021.
Staff costs, including wages, salaries and pensions, came to just over £47m with directors’ remunerations totalling £860,000.
During the period covered by the accounts, the company added an MG franchise in Stockport [pictured] to its stable, taking its number of franchise partners to nine.
It also spent £2.8m into its existing facilities compared to £1m in the previous 12 months.
The firm now operates 11 Lexus dealerships along with three Peugeot and three Honda sites. It also represents Lexus, Nissan, Mazda, Kia and Skoda at two locations apiece.
Reacting to the latest set of results, secretary Arran Bangham said: ‘The directors are pleased to report an exceptional result for the year ended March 31, 2022, with a profit before tax of £17.2m.
‘The actions and measures taken by the directors during the Covid-19 pandemic left the business in a strong position as came out of government lockdown in April 2021. The group’s dealerships returned to normal opening hours from this time and no further lockdown restrictions have been imposed by the government.
‘The worldwide shortage of semiconductors as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic continued to affect the supply of new vehicles during the financial year. This had a positive impact on margin for both new and used vehicles.
‘In addition to the improved used vehicle margin, the lack of new vehicle availability resulted in high demand for used vehicles.
‘Used vehicle margins were further increased by strong trade vehicle sales and profitability.’
‘This result was down to the extreme trading conditions,’ Bangham added.
‘Short supply on new cars and increased demand for vehicles made the market conditions very favourable for motor retail.
‘These conditions are not expected to be as favourable in the current financial year.’
Marubeni has already been in the news this year after Car Dealer reported it has snapped up used car supermarket group HPL Motors for an undisclosed fee.
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