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The annual Motor Trader Top 50 Independent Dealers, the most comprehensive guide to the performance of non-franchised used car retailers, reveals how the UK’s biggest players have built on the growth they achieved in 2014 with a significant increases in turnover and profitability.
The research, conducted for Motor Trader by Trend Tracker, showed the combined turnover of the top 50 companies increased year-on-year by 15% to £2.9bn. The average return on sales dipped slightly year-on year from 3.1% to 3%.
Motorpoint, which operates over eight sites, rose to the top position in the rankings with a turnover of £551.2m and sales of 41,376 units.
The survey covers the 2014 financial year and is based on data collected from responses to Motor Trader’s industry-wide questionnaire and the latest annual reports filed at Companies House.
Annual used car sales surged to a six-year high in 2014 as 6.89 million vehicles changed hands, according to data produced by Experian and based on all retail and private transactions. Sales of used cars for the year increased by 1.2% on the 6.81 million recorded in 2013 to reach their highest point since 2008, when 7.21 million used vehicles were sold.
The majority of the 2015 Motor Trader Top 50’s accounting periods covered the peak selling months of 2014, and with combined sales of £2.9bn, their collective share of the year’s used market value reached 6.4%.
“With a larger used market most of the Motor Trader Top 50 independent retailers turned in relatively stable performances year-on-year, with few changes in their respective rankings exceeding a point or two,” said report author Toby Procter, a director of Trend Tracker.
“Overall, the 2015 Motor Trader Top 50 achieved an increased turnover of 15.3% to a combined total of £2.9bn. This healthy increase in turnover helped the top 50 dealers to realise a 58.5% improvement in combined pre-tax profit, which amounted to an estimated £100.5m, representing an excellent 3% return on sales; a figure significantly higher than the 1.3% recorded in last year’s Motor Trader Top 200 Franchised Dealers Survey.”
This year saw the exit of the failed Carcraft supermarket chain, which went into administration in April 2015, and the debut of five new businesses: Red Line Specialist Cars, SSC Specialist Cars, Sascron, Rix Motors and Automatic Cars.
Click here to see the full survey.
MT 2015 Top 50 Key Points
- The MT Top 50’s combined turnover of £2.9bn is up over 15% year on year
- Motorpoint, the biggest used car dealer in the MT Top 50, retailed 41,376 cars
- The average return on sales for MT’s Top 50 dealers is 3.0%
- Five new entrants make their MT Top 50 debut
- The entry turnover for the MT Top 50 is £7.1m
- The 2014 used car market reached an all-time high of £45.1bn, up 5.6% year on year
- Total market volume reached 7.2 million used cars plus 2.5m new cars; the biggest combined market since 2003.