Pendragon has achieved a 17% rise in operating profit year-on-year in the first half of 2015, while revenues have grown by 10.7%.

The UK’s largest car dealer group reports that turnover for the period stood at £2.29 billion from £2.07bn in the first half of 2014.

Operating profit was up to £56.3 million from £48.1m. Underlying profit before tax was at £40.3m, a 22.9% rise on the £32.8m of H1 2014.

Gross margin declined from 12.9% to 12.4%, but operating margin strengthened from 2.3% to 2.5%.

Pendragon’s anticipated trading result for the full year is “comfortably ahead of expectations,” said the company, which retails cars and commercial vehicles under Stratstone, Evans Halshaw, Chatfields and Quicks brands.

Trevor Finn, Pendragon chief executive, said:  "Our business continues to perform strongly across all sectors, owing to a combination of our strategy, market leading initiatives and favourable market conditions. 

“We continue to be excited by the initiatives launched last year, 'Sell Your Car' and 'Move Me Closer', which appeal to customers from our key brands of Evanshalshaw.com and Stratstone.com. 

“ We plan to expand our footprint, by adding sites particularly in areas where we have no representation, which will provide further convenience to our customers.

“The group has had an encouraging start to the year and our anticipated outturn for the full year is comfortably ahead of expectations."

Highlights from trading include a record used vehicle performance with an 8.3% rise in gross profitability and revenues up 11.8%, a 6.7% lift in aftersales gross profit and revenues up 5%, and a  11.3% jump in new vehicle gross profit with revenues 16.5% up.

Visits to its Evanshalshaw.com and Stratstone.com websites increased by 3.1 million (+39.7%), from 7.8 million to 10.9 million, as the group has invested in TV advertising to promote its Sell Your Car and Move Me Closer market initiatives.

The group's net debt was £53.1 million at June 30, 2015, a reduction of £55.7 million from December  31, 2014.  Within the period Pendragon received proceeds of £22.4 million with respect to the disposal of the King Arthur Property S.a.r.L property investment of £10.0 million.

“As a consequence of this lower debt level and strong EBITDA performance, the debt : underlying EBITDA ratio has reduced from 0.8 at 31 December 2014 to 0.4 at 30 June 2015 and remains below our target range of 1.0 to 1.5.  

“This reflects the appropriate balance of capital efficiency and growth potential, providing both a strong balance sheet and, with our strong cashflow generation and realisations from low performing assets, the ability to invest for the future,” said Pendragon.