8:47 am, August 18, 2025
Used car supermarket Motorpoint has completed its turnaround from its ‘most difficult year ever’ and is back in profit, giving it confidence to expand over the next 12 months.
Accounts for the year ended March 31, 2025 show the Car Dealer Top 100 outfit turned an £8.2m pre-tax loss for FY24 into a whopping £4.1m pre-tax profit last year.
Adjusted profit before tax came to £3.2m, while gross profit rose from £66.6m in FY24 to £90.8m.
Revenue jumped from £1.09bn to £1.17bn, retail units rose from 56,276 to 59,919, while gross profit per retail unit jumped to £1,335 from £1,117, and stock turn fell from 49 to 43 days.
The results underline positive statements the Derby-based business made six months ago where it made a pre-tax profit of £2m in H1 25, with bosses hailing its turn-around ‘Brilliant Basics’ plan ‘delivered what it needed to’.
During the year, the business expanded its operations by one site to 21 with a new store in Norwich.
Commenting on the results, chief executive Mark Carpenter said: ‘Having returned to profitability in the first half of FY25, I am very pleased with our performance across the full year, delivering profitable growth and significantly outperforming the wider used car market.’
He added: ‘We launched Brilliant Basics in FY24 to focus on driving operational excellence, which resulted in a loan cost base, faster stock turn and lower prices, with the cumulative effect of improving profitability.
‘The benefits started to materialise in the first quarter of FY24 and have continued throughout FY25.’
Chair John Walden tempered expectations that Motorpoint was out of the woods, saying: ‘As much as we would like to believe that the challenges are behind his, this would be premature.
‘The supply of used cars, particularly those meeting our nearly new criteria, remains subdued. Interest rates remain high, and the effect of global disruptions in trade on the UK used car industry are unclear.
‘Nevertheless, we are cautiously optimistic that economic trends are favourable, confident that Motorpoint is well positioned to benefit from an improved used car market, and looking increasingly to the future by modestly increasing our investment in our strategic capabilities.’
The report confirmed that Motorpoint looks to open more stores in FY26, with its most recent acquisition in Norwich being used as a ‘blueprint’ for future larger stores. The firm will also being targeting areas of the UK with ‘little market presence’.
Carpenter concluded, saying ‘positive momentum’ has continued into FY26, with retail growth in April and May, an increase in profitability, and strengthened metal margins.
‘We expect ongoing macroeconomic pressures to generally ease,’ he said, ‘ with further moderate reductions in interest rates and the supply of nearly new used vehicles should continue to slowly increase.
‘However, we remain mindful of consumer confidence in the near term remains uncertain. We will continue to prudently manage cost base despite labour inflation headwinds.’
