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Dealers delivered a strong performance in the just published Motor Trader Top 200 Dealer Groups.
The average Return on Sales (RoS), that is pre-tax profit as a percentage of sales for the whole MT Top 200, including estimates, increased to 2.87%, which is a record and a considerable increase on 0.78% three years ago and 1.51% last year.
The leading performer in this top 25 sub-table is CEM Day (59) with a return on sales of 9.1%.
Motor Trader contacted Day’s financial director, Grant Matthews, to check whether this was due to some sort of exceptional profit from, for example, the sale of a property.
Matthews said: “There have not been any exceptional items which have shaped the financial performance in this return.
“Rather it is the strength of diversity in our business which has benefitted us the most.” CEM Day is a very diverse business. Apart from the core motor group, there are interests in vans, car and van hire, HP and leasing financing, and two dedicated used car outlets.
In second place was Penton Motor Group with a RoS of 6.6%. Mitchell Group was in third slot (6.5%), Currie Motors in fourth position (6.4%) and Bussey & Sabberton Bros (6%).