No wonder Pendragon CEO Bill Berman is ‘delighted’, he has just signed off on a massive tenfold increase in profits for the group. A major achievement in anyone’s books.
With a record underlying profit before tax of £83.0m (FY20: £8.2m) and sales well ahead of the overall market, Pendragon has managed to cut costs to significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Says Mr Berman: “We have delivered a really strong set of results, with positive contributions from all parts of our business. Late in 2020, we set out our new strategy to transform our operations and adapt to the fast-changing retail environment. Our focus since then has been on creating value through the delivery of this strategy and we are seeing the operational and financial benefits of this hard work in our results today.
“Our sector has experienced a unique set of trading conditions during the period and I am delighted with how we have performed in this environment. We have made the most of the favourable market dynamics to deliver record underlying profits and we have also reported a return to profit for CarStore, our relaunched, used car brand.
“We expect existing supply chain constraints to continue in the current year, and we are mindful of the potential for further disruption to new vehicle supply chains as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. Despite this, we have the right strategy in place and we expect to make positive progress towards our long-term goals this year.”