Car dealer group Caffyns reports today it has continued to trade profitably so far this year.

Chairman Brian Birkenhead is due to make an interim management statement later this morning at the AM100 group's AGM, before stepping down from the board, as was previously announced.

Birkenhead will report: "I am pleased to announce that in our first quarter to 30 June 2012 we have continued to trade profitably.

"New car unit sales in the quarter are up 8.5% on a like for like basis against the same quarter last year. Strong consumer offers on new cars from many of our brands led to a decline in our used car unit sales for the quarter, which were down 8.2% on a like for like basis.

"However, overall new and used unit sales over the quarter were the same as last year, like for like.

"Aftersales activities remain under pressure as a consequence of the reduced national vehicle parc of cars up to five years old. We have countered this by continuing to achieve high levels of retention of existing customers.

"We have been successful with our key strategic objective of re-balancing our franchise portfolio which has focused on the premium and premium-volume sectors and this has now largely been completed.

"The macro economic climate remains challenging and therefore we remain cautious about the outlook.

"I shall be retiring after today's AGM and I am delighted that Richard Wright will take on the role of chairman."