2010 will be a year of capitalising on successes in growing sales and profits, customer satisfaction levels and relationships with manufacturers for Marshalls.

 

Recently released figures reveal the AM100 dealer group enjoyed an 8.5% increase in turnover to £453 million, new retail sales were up from 8,450 units to 10,167 in 2009 by 21%, used sales were up from 12,450 to 14,289 up by 17%, aftersales departmental net profit from servicing and parts sales by 40% and bodyshop net profits by 19%.

Like-for-like sales grew by 1.6% to £431m.

Operating profit for 2009 was £6.6 million, a turnaround from a loss in 2008 of £7.5m. The financial figures are for Marshall’s motor holdings.

The group also acquired four businesses in the year: three Honda dealerships in Yorkshire and Jaguar in Ipswich were acquired, while Saab in Peterborough, Kia in Ipswich and Hyundai in Cambridge were opened.

Plus a further six businesses in 2010, four through acquisition (two Honda businesses and one each for Seat and Suzuki in Leicester) and opened two more (Volvo in Nottingham and a used car site in Melton Mowbray).

Corporate identity improvements were started at 18 dealerships in 2009 with work on these and another 17 due to be finished by the end of 2010.

Customer satisfaction levels have also risen with 90% of manufacturer CSI above the national average, with nine of the groups’ businesses hitting the number one spot for their respective manufacturers during the year.

In the annual report, Marshall’s chief executive Daksh Gupta said: “At the beginning of 2009, we signalled our intention to grow the business beyond the historic regional boundaries and to build our relationships with both existing and new brand partners.

“It was a year of transformation for Marshalls with substantial progress on many fronts resulting in significant improvements in our sales and profit performance, our customer satisfaction levels, employee morale and relationships with business partners.

“2010 is a year in which we intend to optimise these improvements and embed the new culture in the business at all levels.”