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John Clark Motor Group (JCMG), the family run and owned automotive business with sites across North, East and Central Scotland, have today filed accounts at Companies House for the year ended December 31st 2022.
These accounts show that, despite facing several well documented sector specific and macroeconomic challenges, 2022 saw our group continue to deliver a strong performance across all areas of the business. Throughout the year we saw strong trading positives across our diversified franchise portfolio as well as again strong results from our used vehicle sales operations. Our aftersales operations also performed well, generating revenue growth of 8% to a new record value of £85.8m.
Whilst new and used vehicle supply constraints continued to impact the sector, our overall Turnover rose to £914.3m (up from £910.3m in 2021 and our pre Covid pandemic 2019 value of £820.8m). Overall gross margin gains were broadly balanced by increased staff costs and higher operating overheads, with our Operating Profit before interest rising slightly to 3.0%. Our Net Profit Before Tax increased from the previous record of £24.1m to a now new record of £25.3m.
We again maintained a robust positive cash at bank position throughout the year.
Looking back on 2022 … Chris Clark, Group Managing Director commented:
“I am clearly very happy to report further year on year gains continuing to build on our success of previous years. Our teams can once again celebrate playing their part in what has been another great year for the Group, and we remain incredibly grateful for all the hard work and effort that each one of our colleagues puts into their roles. I know we have one of the best teams in the industry and I am very proud to be part of it.”
A key priority throughout remained our provision of extended support to our colleagues, as we sought to help them address the impacts of numerous external financial challenges. We did this through a mix of targeted wage reviews, provision of additional temporary cost of living support measures and utilisation of retailer benefits platforms, which were all well received and helped us to improve our colleague satisfaction and retention levels.
Group colleague headcount saw a slight increase from 1,269 to 1,304 and we continued to invest in our award-winning internal training and development programmes as well as the extension of our own apprentice programme.
We saw further recognition of our teams’ performances via several of our manufacturer partners’ awards programmes, including our Pentland Motor Company division being recognised as Land Rover UK dealer group of the Year for 2021 and again for 2022. Pentland Land Rover Perth also won the individual Land Rover Dealer of the Year Award.
The Group continued with its significant programme of investment into new and refurbished facilities including:
Having in 2021 assessed and quantified our carbon footprint in accordance with the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting regulations, 2022 saw us invest in a range of both mitigation and offsetting measures as we implement our plans to achieve a carbon neutral business by 2030. These included investment in solar panel technology and electric vehicle charge point infrastructure as well as a move to green energy tariffs and the creation of a ring-fenced financial fund to allow the group to invest in sustainability projects. We have already reduced our carbon footprint measurement by 25% and see improvement across three key carbon intensity metrics.
Looking ahead at 2023 … Chris Clark, Group Managing Director commented:
“Having again carried forward a higher than historic volume of new vehicle customer orders, the group continues to again generate positive trading results in 2023. Our June 2023 Management Accounts reflect Turnover and Net Profit before tax values which are ahead of budget, with our Balance Sheet Net Assets as at June 30th 2023 crossing the £100m threshold and our projected full year Turnover approaching £1bn”
As we look further ahead to 2024 and what will be our 50th anniversary year, we remain confident that our financial resources are strong, well balanced, and sufficient to support our current operations and our planned future investments. As a result of the profits generated over the last fourteen years, despite significant fixed asset investment expenditure during this period, the group’s balance sheet has been strengthened and provides a level of overall financial resource which leaves us well positioned to commit to fresh facilities investment as well as actively pursue future acquisition opportunities.
