Trade Centre targets profitability in 2025 after transformation plan

Trade Centre is targeting a £10 million profit-before tax performance following a year of transition and transformation.

The used car supermarket posted an annual loss last year as a result of the strategic decision to close its Birmingham South store which included a £6.2m exceptional cost.

However, Trade Centre's update on market performance for the first half of the financial year, ending May 2025, shows a £4.7m profit before tax result, including "the difficult December opening month of the trading period".

The wider transformation plan included implementing policies and approaches focused on employee well-being, with an emphasis on more flexible hours for the retail team for greater work-life balance.

While this initiative initially increased costs, the business is reporting improved productivity and seeing key indicators in staff satisfaction results "rise considerably".

Another key growth driver in the transformation plan was, under new department leadership, to completely transform the acquisition of retail stock, stock management and part-exchange disposal.

Another element of the transformation plan included implementing new digital tools and reporting to react quickly to market trends, with far more dynamic management of ageing stock and pricing, together with measures to significantly increase returns on part-exchange cars wholesaled through auction channels.

Andy Coulthurst, chief executive of Trade Centre Group, who has now been steering the business for a decade, said: “We really are enjoying the fruits of the teams hard work in 2024, we made wholesale changes to the business including improved technology and introducing more dynamic senior leadership across the sales

function and inventory acquisition and management side of the business.

"You could see across the market in 2024 how challenging the car supermarket model was proving to be, with key players closing or repurposing stores and profits tightening.

“While we also faced difficult headwinds, we knew that our transformation plan would set us on a course to strong profitability in 2025, we continue to go from strength to strength, the team should be very proud of their result in the half-year and our focus is firmly on £10m+ PBT for the full year."

Originally focused on Wales, Trade Centre expanded into central England during the last 10 years.

It is now one of the UK's 10 largest  independent used car dealer groups, a sector which is dominated by Motorpoint and which was briefly disrupted by Cazoo.