Interim Management Statement - March 2016
28TH APR 2016
This Interim Management Statement for Pendragon PLC, the UK's leading automotive online retailer, covers the period from 01 January 2016 to 27 April 2016. Unless otherwise stated, figures quoted in this statement are for the three months ended 31 March 2016.
Trevor Finn, Chief Executive:
"Our first quarter underlying profit before tax increased by 8.7% which is testament to our continued delivery of our strategy. We remain focussed on initiatives which provide choice, value, service and convenience to our customers. Many of our initiatives are orientated around online consumer activity, from research of vehicles to the nationwide availability of a vehicle. We are expecting to see growth in profitability across aftersales, used and new for the full year as we continue to benefit from favourable market conditions and further implement our winning retail initiatives. We are expecting the Group to perform in line with expectations for the full year."
Highlights
- Our underlying profit before tax increased by 8.7%.
- Like for like gross profit increased across all our main vehicle sectors of aftersales, used and new, due to a combination of market dynamics, our customer initiatives and our clear strategy.
- Aftersales gross profit increased by 1.2% on a like for like basis.
- Used gross profit increased by 4.2% on a like for like basis.
- New gross profit increased by 15.2% on a like for like basis.
- Online visits to Stratstone.com and Evanshalshaw.com increased by 18.5% in the period.
- In the period we opened three stores in Bristol, Norwich and Peterborough, all new territories for us. We will acquire further sites this year to supplement our national footprint.
- Our target debt : underlying EBITDA ratio continues to be significantly below our target range so we are assessing the best use of funds.
