Marshall Motor Group completes Nissan Leicester dealership acquisition – AM Online
Completion of the acquisition from Renault Retail Group was confirmed this morning (July 1) and comes just over a month after the AM100 PLC acquired the Cheltenham and Gloucester Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) franchise from Heritage Automotive.
The addition of the Nissan business expands Marshall’s Nissan portfolio, which already included dealerships in Grantham and Lincoln and includes the purchase of a three-acre freehold site on Abbey Road in Leicester.
Lookers returns to profit in 2020 after restructuring and cost cutting – Motor Trader
Lookers published its delayed annual results today delivering pre-tax profits of £2m on turnover of £3.7bn compared to losses of -£45.7m on £4.8bn in the prior year. Underlying profits before tax in 2020 were £14.1m compared to £4m last time.
On a like-for-like basis new car units sold fell by -20.6%, used car units by -18.7% and aftersales revenues by 19.6% In aftersales it continues to focus on service plans and now has 168,986 live service plan agreements, which is up 5% on 2019.
Pendragon forecasts £45m to £50m 2021 profit in pre-close update – AM Online
The AM100 car retail PLC said in this morning’s (June 30) statement that it “remains confident in the long-term outlook”, in-spite of ongoing automotive sector uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the global shortage of semiconductor microchips.
It also forecast a £30m underlying pre-tax profit for the first half of the year, up 196.8% on a period devastated by the UK’s first COVID-19 a year earlier.
Pendragon warns chip shortage causing order delays – Motor Trader
Pendragon has become the latest dealer group to warn that the shortage of semi-conductors hitting production is likely to impact its new supplies in the second half of the year.
It said there was likely to be some restrictions on supplies and that order times are already been extended.
Marshall continues to evolve after CEO's ‘special’ start to 2021 – Am Online
Daksh Gupta revealed that the business is in the process of doubling its buying team as it applies greater focus to a fast-moving used car market buoyed by strong consumer demand.
Following a week which saw his business announce that it will hand its 4,000 staff a 2020 ‘loyalty bonus’ and a backdated pay review – while forgoing all director bonuses – ahead of a trading update forecasting a record full-year underlying profit.
Marshall’s strong performance follows last month’s commitment to repay £4m in Government COVID-19 support
Arnold Clark launches dedicated weekly sale at Aston Barclay Prees Heath – AM Online
Arnold Clark has launched a new weekly dealer sale at Aston Barclay’s Prees Heath site as part of an extended remarketing agreement. The AM100 retail group already sells vehicle via two weekly sales at Aston Barclay’s Donnington and Wakefield sites.
Martin Potter, Aston Barclay’s MD-Customer, said: “Arnold Clark has welcomed our new hybrid remarketing strategy as we know the physical element is an important part of making purchase decisions. Physical buyers like the type of part exchanges that make up this stock, and as a result we have seen strong conversion rates.
