‘Exceptional year’ as Lookers set for record breaking profits
Car dealership group Lookers is on track for record breaking profits – but its outlook for 2022 remains cautious due to ongoing global supply chain disruptions.
Chief executive Mark Raban hailed 2021 as an ‘exceptional year’ driven by strong sales in both new car and used cars and a shift in consumer behaviour following Covid.
The group now expects record pre-tax profits for the year to December 31, 2021 to exceed market expectations of £82m.
The group has come out of a challenging period which saw lockdown push the group into a loss in 2020.
However, a restructuring plan to strengthen the group’s model and pent-up demand for used cars has seen the company end 2021 with a strong balance sheet, with net cash of approximately £8m compared to a net debt of £40.7m in 2020 and property with a book value of £303.9m as at 30 June 2021.
Lookers has also embarked on a comprehensive review – due to be published in April – exploring strategic growth opportunities.
The review will also address a number of long-term market trends including changing consumer behaviour, the impact of electric vehicles, the competitive landscape, developing relationships with OEMs, changing technology and the regulatory environment in which the it operates.
Mark Raban said: “2021 was an exceptional year for Lookers and we now expect to beat our previous estimates with record profit for the year.
“This is a great achievement by the whole team in a year which brought many external challenges, including Covid and vehicle shortages, demonstrating the strength of our proposition. With net cash at the year end, we have a strong balance sheet and good capacity to invest in future growth opportunities.”
The group said Q4 trading remained strong and while 2022 has started with an “excellent new car order bank” it remained cautious given the ongoing global supply chain disruptions and the uncertainty of the availability of new vehicles.
