MT Top 200, Diversity in motor retailing, EV Retail Summit 2022

Check out the April issue of Motor Trader, which features our annual look at the Top 200 Dealer Groups in the UK by turnover.

Dealers turned in an impressive performance in the latest report with profitability and return on sales showing strong gains.

While turnover fell 17% to £63.6bn, profitability increased with average return on sales for the entire MT Top 200 up from 0.78% to 1.51.

Return on sales for this survey’s Top 25 performers is also markedly up, ranging from 2.8% to 5.6%.

Despite the pandemic, dealers performed strongly as they did in the recovery from the last financial crisis in 2008.

The April issue also takes a look at diversity in the workforce. Lack of diversity is a real issue in the motor sector and the higher up the management ladder you go the worse it gets.

That’s the key finding of the Institute of the Motor Industry’s final report from its Diversity Task Force.

The IMI found that automotive vacancies are at their highest level for 20 years at more than 23,000, accounting for approximately 4% of the workforce.

It said a more diverse workforce was critical to turn the tide and the lack of role models is a “fundamental barrier” to achieving that goal.

In Dealer Insight this month we take a close look at Inchcape Chelmsford, which recently won the Mini Retailer of the Year 2021 award as the top performer in the network across eight key areas, including retail sales.

What makes the difference at the business? Leadership, passion for the brands they are selling and consistency. Doing excellent work in a systematic way. This is reflected in mystery shopping where it does brilliantly.

And this month we continue with our series of features on Electric Vehicles and trends in training, infrastructure and technicians. We also take a look at the fastest and slowest selling EVs in the UK in March.

And we launch the Motor Trader EV Retail Summit, which is taking place in the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, 30 October.