11:48 am, July 20, 2023
HPL Motors saw its pre-tax profit slide by 15 per cent despite a 10 per cent increase in revenue last year.
Newly published accounts show the used car supermarket, which has sites in Preston, Oldham and Atherton, made £5.063m during the year to October 31, 2022 versus £5.969m the year before.
That was on revenue of £99.157m – up from the £90.251m it brought in during its 2021 financial year.
Operating profit, meanwhile, stood at £5.112m – down 15 per cent on 2021’s figure of £6.024m.
Despite that, the board directors said in the accompanying report that they were pleased with how the business had performed.
They added: ‘The strategy to offer customers choice, value for money, service and convenience across all the HPL sites has helped to deliver another exceptional result in the year.’
HPL Motors, which is the trading name of Heaton Park Garage, blamed the profit fall on used vehicle prices going up because of increased demand in the sector caused by the short supply of new vehicles, as well as the increasing cost of living plus rising interest rates.
It didn’t get any government grants, versus the £177,597 received in 2021. Meanwhile, a bank loan of £1,207,654 was fully repaid in September.
The average monthly number of employees fell from 141 to 129, with casualties felt in the sales & purchasing plus service & valeting departments.
Heaton Park Garage became a 100 per cent subsidiary of HPL Motors Group in June 2021, and Marubeni Corporation, which is incorporated in Japan, became the ultimate controlling party on December 31, 2022.
Marubeni Auto Investment (UK) Ltd is a Car Dealer Top 100 firm.
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