Peter Vardy has seen its turnover rise to nearly £591 million during 2022 as it continues its expansion in Aberdeen.
The motor group has CARZ showroom in Aberdeen’s Lang Stracht and recently announced the takeover of the MG franchise.
Newly filed accounts for Peter Vardy Holdings show the group had sales of £590.5m in the year to December 31 2022, an increase from £560.7m in 2021.
Pre-tax profits decreased from £11m to £6.1m.
New car sales boost
It also counts Perth and Kirkcaldy sites among its six car supermarkets in Scotland.
And recently closed down its CARZ dealership in Dundee leading to the loss of dozens of jobs.
It also operates seven franchise dealerships for Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, BMW, Mini, Ora and MG.
Boosting the company performance was strong demand for new cars.
‘Outstanding financial successes’
Peter Vardy, group chief executive, said: “Profitability has been significantly impacted by a reduction in used car supply and the resultant margin erosion unfortunately impacting the majority of the group’s retail outlets.
“However, the group has seen outstanding financial successes in the year in the new car department.
“The new car contribution to group profitability rose by £3.9m or 79.6% year on year.
“Whilst new car volume actually reduced by 28.1% due to an instability in supply, our average margin per vehicle increased by £3,188 per vehicle, as a result of selling more high end premium product in our Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW and MINI
franchises.”
Skilled workers shortage
In April 2022, the company made the decision to close the CARZ Dalgety Bay business to combine the market area opportunity for the Fife region into the Kirkcaldy dealership.
The average number of employees across the group increased from 998 in 2021 to 1,008 in 2022.
But a warning has been made about a shortage of skilled workers with attention perhaps turning to more apprenticeships.
It said: “The group has been significantly impacted in the year, and will be in the future by the unprecedented shortage in the labour market, particularly mechanical technicians.
“The result has seen a wage inflation of nearly 10% across all job roles. The board will take this into consideration in its growth plans in the future, including increasing its investment in apprenticeships across all job roles.”
