Pendragon slips to annual loss
Car dealership group Pendragon, which includes Evans Halshaw and Stratstone, saw sales fall as it slipped to a pre-tax loss last year.
Revenues on its continuing operations was down 4.1 per cent to £4.14 billion with it going from a £53.3 million profit to a £50.5m loss.
There are Evans Halshaw dealerships in Shrewsbury, Stourbridge, Walsall, Worfield and Wolverhampton and Stratstone sites in Stourbridge and Wolverhampton.
Chief executive Trevor Finn said: "We continue to focus on our strategic priorities and the reallocation of our capital into the areas we see as providing the strongest long-term growth. We have seen strong performance in used cars in the second half of the year, with the transformation of preparation facilities and processes now embedded in our car stores. We anticipate this will carry on into 2019 and beyond as our new car store businesses further boost our used car growth."
He said new car sales had been subdued, but the leasing business had grown profitability.
Mr Finn is retiring at the end of March and will be succeeded by Mark Herbert.
Used vehicle revenue, excluding nearly new vehicles, grew by 2.9 per cent against a used car market which fell 2.2 per cent in the year..
New car revenue was down 2.2 per cent with the UK market down 6.8 per cent.
Pendragon continues to see growth in its online business, with visits to Carstore.com, Evanshalshaw.com and Stratstone.com up 5.1 per cent to 28.7 million visitors from 27.3m in 2017.
