04 February 2021

US owned Group 1 Automotive saw turnover for its UK division drop 13.1% to $2.10 billion (£1.54bn) in 2020 compared to the previous year. However, UK same store profitability figures for 2020 show only a 2.4% drop to $64.7m (£47.4m).

Earl J Hesterberg

Commenting on the results Earl J Hesterberg, Group 1 CEO,  said: “Despite the many challenges of government mandated Covid lockdowns throughout the last nine months of 2020 and ongoing Brexit turmoil, we were able to substantially restructure our UK business this year. Even with our showrooms closed for more than 90 days, we were able to generate outstanding profits and establish an efficient cost structure that will serve us well as the UK market recovers.”

Globally, Group 1 saw revenue fall 9.9% to $10.85 billion in 2020 against 2019’s $12.04bn. Profit before tax stood at $370.3m for 2020, up 62.9% on 2019’s $227.3m.

“Our strong fourth quarter results were highlighted by a further recovery in our US revenue to last year’s levels while maintaining outstanding cost discipline across the company. The effective reengineering of our processes throughout this year culminated in massive productivity improvements in our US and UK businesses,” said Mr Hesterberg.

“In the fourth quarter, we realised more than a 25% improvement in our US technician productivity and more than a 33% increase in our salesperson productivity. In a similar fashion, major cost structure improvements in the UK throughout 2020 enabled us to remain profitable there every month of the quarter despite our showrooms being closed for 41 of 92 days due to Covid lockdowns. We expect long-term benefits from these cost improvements as the market recovers in 2021.”

Tags: Group 1 Automotive