Peter Vardy Group has seen operating profits rise by 56% in a year which set out to improve manufacturing relationships, digital opportunities and its ability to be “the best place to work or buy”.

Turnover rose by 11% to £437.2 million (2014: £393.5 million) for Peter Vardy Group Holdings in the year ended December 31st as operating profits before amortisation and donations topped £12.1m – up from £7.8m in 2014.

Despite the successes, no dividend was paid, a statement issued by the group revealed.

Underlying returns on sales was up from 2% last year to 2.7%, compared to an industry average for the same period of 1.22% - and average profit per dealership was £1 million, compared to an industry average of £197,000.

Chief executive, Peter Vardy, said: “The Group is performing ahead of its 2020 strategy after the first year and has focused its actions on six key objectives: colleague engagement, customer, or guest as defined in our business, satisfaction, developing manufacturer relationships, achieving financial performance targets, evolving digital strategies and giving 10% of profits back to charity.”

Peter Vardy Group operates six Vauxhall dealerships and five prestige dealerships selling Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche or BMW-Mini vehicles.

It also operates Scotland’s biggest indoor used car showroom, CarStore, at Hillington, Glasgow, and another CarStore supermarket is set to open in Dundee.

During 2015 Peter Vardy invested heavily in new premises to accommodate its growth plans over the next five years.

Porsche Aberdeen represented a £6 million investment and a new Jaguar Land Rover showroom in the city is scheduled to open next month.

The group also claimed that it is benefiting from improved colleague engagement, mone of its leading KPIs with “90 per cent of colleagues proud to work for the Peter Vardy Group and over 80 per cent planning to remain with the Group in three years’ time”.

In June 2016 the Peter Vardy Group distributed share options to its 800 employees as part of its Peter Vardy Partnership Programme.

In its drive to evolve its digital status, the business saw annual website visits surpass 2.7 million, an increase of 38% on the previous year. This translated into 72,000 digital enquiries.