The average car dealership in the UK brought home a profit of £93,000 profit in March, according to ASE.
Although a healthy figure, this represents a £3,000 - or 3.2 per cent - drop from March 2014, suggesting that while sales figures are not declining, the profit margins are narrowing. Indeed, the dealer performance specialist said that despite a five per cent rise in the average turnover for car dealerships in Q1 of 2015, overall profits in this period stand at £80,000, down from £95,000 in the same three months last year.
Maximising profits is the most important thing for any business. While car dealers can do this through increasing sales or improving profit margins, they can also help protect their takings by investing in a high quality motor trade insurance policy - this will offer cover for a number of risks a car dealers faces, including theft or damage, thereby ensuring profits are not dented in the case of the company being hit by any misfortune.
Looking at new car sales, the average dealer sold the same number of vehicles in March 2015 as they did in the prior year, ASE figures suggest. This contradicts the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders' recent announcement that new car sales were up 6.8 per cent year-on-year, which Mike Jones, ASE chairman, puts down to an increase in self-registrations.
He added: “With April looking like producing another registration increase the profitable disposal of self-registered cars is absolutely key to overall 2015 profitability.”
