Strong used cars drive Arnold Clark profits to £125m in 2016

Arnold Clark turned in a strong performance in the year to 31 December 2016 with pre-tax profits surging 13.6% to £125.4m on turnover up 9.2% to £3.7bn.

In a year blighted by the death of founder and chairman Sir Arnold Clark, the group continued to grow its highly successful used car operation with sales up 12.7% to 197,842 units while new car sales fell 4.3% to 80,203 units for the period.

Arnold Clark Finance, its vehicle management and daily rental company, had a difficult trading year and saw per-tax profits fell 19.4% to £12.5m on turnover down 2.1% to £547.3m

The group expanded its operations in 2016, buying two Volkswagen dealerships in Stirling and Bathgate, which were upgraded. It also acquired an eight-acre storage and distribution compound in Staffordshire.

It continued to grow its supermarket business. During the year it opened a seven-acre, Motor Store in Nottingham with space for 400 cars on site. It also opened a Motorstore with space for 250 cars. The company plans another Motorstore site in Wakefield.

It said that early trading in 2017 had been “very encouraging” and it predicted that turnover and profitability would continue to increase during the year.

In the chief executive statement accompanying financials filed at Companies House, Eddie Hawthorne paid tribute to Sir Arnold Clark’s strong belief in investing in and training people.

Today the group employs 800 apprentices and this will grow by another 270 this year.

During 2016 the group trained over 2,000 Arnold Clark and external students at its training centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Wolverhampton.