City briefs: Pendragon; Image Scan
Pendragon, the Nottingham-based car retail giant, has published its first quarter figures for 2022.
The firm has posted a rise in underlying profit before tax of £18.7m, up from £10.8m last year.
Bill Berman, chief executive of Pendragon, said: “The positive momentum in the business has continued into the first quarter of this year and I am very pleased with how we have performed. The benefits of the work we have done in the past two years to improve our operations, from vehicle sourcing through to online and in store sales practices is evident in our strong trading performance and we have seen good contributions from all parts of the Group. While we are mindful of the pressures facing our market and our customers, we are confident in our strategy and focused on continuing to deliver profitable growth over the medium term.”
Image Scan, the Leicestershire manufacturer of X-ray imaging machines, has seen losses widen for the six months to March 31.
The firm made a deficit of £345,000, compared to a loss of £201,000 last year. Revenues also fell from £868,000 to £790,000.
Bill Mawer, chairman and chief executive officer of Image Scan, said: “The overall level of trading in our first half is disappointing, an indication of the sluggish recovery of our markets from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We consider the ThreatScan®-AS1 portable X-ray system to be our most significant product launch for some years. This project has aimed to develop the best performing portable X-ray system in the world and the initial customer response has been very positive. We look for a number of delayed government procurements for portable X-ray systems to finally close and are working hard to ensure this happens early in the second half. The slowdown in the automotive market is impacting our industrial activity, though the acquisition of a new customer in this space is a positive development.”
