Pendragon has reported “a strong start” to 2017, with growth in aftersales and used.

The AM100 dealer group reports in an interim statement to the London Stock Exchange that between January 1 and April 26 its revenues grew 10.4% like-for-like and underlying profit before tax rose 17.6% from the same period last year.

Trevor Finn, chief executive, said: “Pendragon has made a strong start to 2017 with significant growth in our key market areas of aftersales and used.  Our revenue growth in the used vehicle sector was over 23%, which is significantly ahead of our annual target of double digit growth and ensures we remain on track to achieve our long term target of doubling used vehicle revenues by 2021.”

Aftersales gross profit (GP) grew by 7.6% like-for-like, while used vehicle GP was 16.5% ahead and new vehicle GP was flat.

Pendragon said it has had more than 8 million visitors to Evanshalshaw.com and Stratstone.com in the first quarter as its online business continues to grow.

Its plan to expand its physical footprint across the UK continues, with two new sites opened in the South West during Q1 and another four sites in new territories set to open before the end of 2017. It will also add three more sites in existing territories.

“Our business model provides the customer with choice, value, customer service and convenience. We are progressing with our additional investment in footprint to provide further convenience to our expanding customer base,” added Pendragon's statement.

“We are delivering on our strategy of doubling our used revenue over the next five years. We continue to see growth in our online offering and we will couple this with further investment in additional footprint to provide better convenience for our customers.  At this stage of the year, we are encouraged with early trading, and therefore we are comfortably positioned with respect to our expectations.”