Car dealership turns a corner as it pushes ahead with recovery plan

CAR dealers Harratts Group has returned to profit as it continues to drive ahead with a “robust strategy for recovery”.

The company plan has been exiting underperforming businesses and franchises, which resulted in turnover being reduced by £60m from its 2010 peak to £117.1m in 2014 in order to create a “smaller, more manageable size [business] centred on Wakefield”.

Accounts just filed at Companies House show revenues rose in 2015 to £124.3m while crucially Harratts posted a pre-tax profit of £307,000, after a £2m loss the year before. Its bottom-line performance in 2015 was achieved despite a £311,000 loss from discontinued operations.

The company said that a “key foundation” of its strategy has been the consolidation of the business to a “more manageable and efficient operating unit”. It said the sale of its Volvo business in Huddersfield and its property in Bradford to Clive Brook in 2015 was a “further step” to this goal.

Harratts said its success in achieving manufacturing targets in 2015 had been a “significant” driver towards profitability in the period.

Looking ahead to 2016, the company said the next step of the recovery plan was to continue to further improve profitability through stability in operations, further growth from after sales profitability and continued focus on achieving manufacturing targets.

The company said: “The significant turnaround in results in 2015 of circa £2m should see further progress in 2016 with a planned net profit of £750,000 in our sights and after four months we are ahead of this plan.”

Craig Fraser, group operations director at Harratts Motor Group, said: “We are all delighted with the latest published figures. They represent a dramatic turnaround in trading performance. We have succeeded in consolidating the group by selling underperforming businesses and becoming a more manageable and efficient operating unit in the process.

“This way, we have been able to achieve manufacturers’ targets and deliver our most profitable trading period in recent years.”

Harratts managing director Shaun Harratt added: “I am hugely grateful for the hard work of our dedicated teams throughout Yorkshire. I would also like to thank our wonderful customers for their support too. We have made some tough decisions in recent years, but the group’s current state of resurgent health justifies our approach.”

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