Just Car Clinics remains on the right track

CRASH repair chain Just Car Clinics Group today said it has witnessed an increase in sales over the past year although its profits are slightly down.

The Goole-based group’s results to the end of December 2009 also show that it has has added two new vehicle repair centres in Stourbridge and Redditch resulting in it having 25 in total.

it expects to make further acquisitions over the next year.

It saw its turnover increase to £42.9m from £42.6m in 2008 while its profits before tax dropped to £1.22m from £1.3m last time.

Over the same period, its operating cash flow increased from £1.24m to £1.9m on the back of a raft of cost cutting measures taken at an earlier date.

It also intends to pay shareholders a dividend of 1.63p a share – up from 1.6p in 2008.

Chief executive Barry Whittles said: “2009 was a very difficult year for the UK economy and the accident repair sector was not entirely unaffected.  

“I believe that Just Car Clinics demonstrated the underlying resilience of the industry and a proactive response to the market conditions and in these circumstances I was pleased with the financial results achieved. 

“Much has been achieved in the last twelve months, with the continued expansion of our network and broader retail offering, further improvements in customer service and the award of BSI Kitemark accreditation at all our locations – except for the recent acquisitions.”

“The board believes that the medium term successful growth of the group will be fuelled in part by expansion of the site network and it is anticipated that additional sites will be acquired during 2010, provided that suitable opportunities become available.”