Pendragon PLC Announces Full Year Results 2016
14TH FEB 2017
Today we announced our full year results to 31 December 2016.
As the UK's largest online automotive retailer, we continue to make significant progress, leading the evolution of online automotive retailing.
Below are some highlights from the full report, which can be viewed here.
Strategic Highlights
- Our initiatives such as Move Me Closer™, Sell Your Car and our aftersales progress update portal are leading the evolution of automotive online retailing.
- The Evanshalshaw.com and Stratstone.com websites have developed further during the year generating 22.7 million visits in the year, up +14.4% - with 66% of our visitors from self-generated rather than paid sources.
- Used vehicle revenue growth is a key strategic goal and revenues have grown by 64% in 5 years at a compound annual growth rate of 10.4%.
- Investment in additional physical capacity for used vehicle sales continues so that we can achieve at least double digit growth in used vehicle revenue in 2017.
- Our strategy is focused on our four 'pillars' of Choice, Value, Customer Service and Convenience supported by our people and protected by ownership of our evolving intellectual property and IT.
Operational Highlights
- Pinewood (the Group's IT and Software division) established its first European customer user base and increased operating profit by +14.9%.
- Used vehicle revenue up +9.5% on a like for like basis (+5.6% total) as we continue to increase our market share.
- Aftersales revenue up +7.3% on a like for like basis (+4.1% total) as a result of market tailwinds and our initiatives.
- New vehicle revenue up +3.1% on a like for like basis (-1.4% total).
- Underlying operating margin 2.2% - in line with the prior year.
Trevor Finn, our Chief Executive, comments:
"We believe that we can achieve at least double digit growth in used revenue in 2017 and our aspiration over the next five years is to double our used vehicle revenue. In order to test this, during the final quarter of 2016 we invested in inventory and adjusted our algorithms and marketing initiatives with a view to driving growth in used vehicle activity levels to test the capacity of our current footprint."
"The early results of this are very encouraging. Our growth in used vehicle revenue on a like for like basis in January 2017 exceeded the increase required to achieve our growth aspirations. We anticipate our performance for 2017 will be in line with expectations."
