Essex-based dealer group Glyn Hopkin is a prime example of how a company can fight against all the odds and come out the other end with a positive future. What happens when one of your key franchises quits the UK and you’re hit with pandemic-related closures? This double whammy only inspired Glyn Hopkin Group to fight back and to fight back hard.
And it was only last year that the Group invested in a flagship Fiat Chrysler concept store in Romford. Remember early 2020? When everything seemed normal?
Hence the glee greeting the report this week of profits rising despite turnover falling.
A pre-tax profit of £1.54m in 2020 is an increase from the pre-pandemic 2019, and this despite a whacking 18 per cent drop in turnover to £368m. More profit from fewer sales.
Unsurprisingly, the group reported that the year as “extraordinarily challenging”, what with lockdowns and reduced new car sales impacting turnover, which the entire industry has faced, but also with the departure of a key manufacturer in Mitsubishi.
During this period, thanks to the furlough, the group kept employee numbers pretty much level (752 in 2020 compared to 767 the year before) but the advent of its four new MG dealerships helped to balance the loss of Mitsubishi.
A new Kia dealership in Chadwell Heath also proved a positive for the group.
Finance director, Hady Laba, said: “The business was effectively non-operational or at best only partially operational for months during the two Covid-19 generated lockdowns, firstly from late March to early June, and then again in November, when there was a partial lockdown.
“This is reflected in the reduction in turnover, which as shown above, was below the average fall in the new vehicle market. Whilst the company took advantage of the various government schemes, including the Coronavirus job retention scheme and business rates support, the business did not take up any of the various government sponsored loan options, and also continued to comply with its leasehold commitments to landlords, a number of whom cooperatively agreed rent reductions, holidays or deferrals and all agreed temporary changes to rent payment cycles.”
Here at Need To Know Motors we have a soft spot for Glyn Hopkin and we raise a glass to them coming through a tough period. We know there are difficult times ahead for the entire industry, but the Glyn Hopkin Group is a shining example of battling through what life throws at us.