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Pendragon retained its position as the largest dealer group in the UK with annual turnover of £4.45bn, according to the 2016 Motor Trader Top 200 Franchised Dealers.
It was closely followed by Sytner in the number two position with annual sales of £4.23bn.
Lookers was in third place, bouncing Arnold Clark Automobiles into fourth position. Arnold Clark had held the third position since 2009.
Sales and profits continued to grow for franchised groups. The collective turnover of the Motor Trader Top 200 groups increased for the sixth consecutive year increased 8.6% to £61.3bn on the back of the buoyant new car market, while pre-tax profits increased 10% from £0.89bn to £0.97bn.
These increases were achieved despite a decline in return on sales from 1.35% to 1.3%. The MT Top 200 as a whole saw turnover rise 8.6% to £61.3bn from £56.4bn last time.
There were 22 new entrants this year, mostly in the lower half of the table, their turnovers having risen above this year’s £35.9m threshold, and two re-entries by groups which have featured before, namely WR Davies Motor Group (119) and Citroën dealers Wilmoths (154).
This year has seen an acceleration in acquisitions with 12 companies taken over since the publication of the 2015 Motor Trader Top 200 last December.
Analysis of the segmentation of the Motor Trader Top 200 showed the top 10 groups now account collectively for 43.8% of the total Motor Trader Top 200 turnover, with their average sales of nearly £2.7bn.
A significant deal in the past 12 months has been Mercedes-Benz Retail Group’s sale of its entire Manchester and Birmingham market areas to the Hong Kong-based automotive retailer Lei Shing Hong – with the new entity now being called LSH Auto UK.
Click here to see the full Motor Trader Top 200.