28 April 2019

• DIRECTORS CHANGE AT NORTON WAY AND RRG
• VOLVO OFFERS BREXIT PRICE PROMISE
• SYTNER COMPLETES SUPERCAR DEVELOPMENTS
• RETAILERS BUOYED BY SALES INCREASE
• CHINESE EV START-UP PREFERS LEASE MODEL TO RETAILERS
• TESLA Q1 RESULTS SHOCK ANALYSTS
• STOCKWATCH – Inchcape loses earlier gains, Motorpoint down
• LAUNCH DIARY – Mercedes-Benz V-class, Peugeot Expert
• COMING UP – House Price Index, BoE interest rate decision, Vertu full-year results, Auto Retail Live Q2 Briefing
• MONEY MATTERS – Twitter Q1 ad revenue breaks £500m, businesses paid more tax last year
• OUR BLOG – Do workshop cameras really deliver a benefit?

Directors change at Norton Way and RRG

Marubeni Auto Investment has continued its shake-up at director level at its two UK subsidiaries, Norton Way Motors and RRG Group.

Toru Masuyama and Keishi Kinoshita have been appointed at Norton Way and both they and Yashinori Okabe are on the board at the RRG Group. Earlier this year former directors Naonori Ishii, Richard Siney and Michele Negus stepped down.

Accounts to the end of March 2018 showed that Norton Way Motors made pre-tax profits of £3.1 million on a turnover of £239m with figures of £4.6m and £302m respectively for RRG.

Maurbeni Auto Investments is ultimately owned by the £60 billion-plus Marubeni Corporation of Tokyo.

Volvo offers Brexit price promise

Volvo has given its customers a Brexit price promise to eliminate the fear of any tariff-related increases in the cost of its cars.

While some premium brands that manufacturer in continental Europe had increasing stock levels ahead of the original 29 March Brexit deadline to mitigate against any possible tariff increases, Volvo claims it had a high order bank and could not get enough vehicles. To get around this issue, and to retain customers, Volvo’s outgoing managing director Jon Wakefield wrote to all customers with orders waiting to reassure them they would not be hit by a tariff price hike.

“We wrote to our customers to tell them not to worry, we told them that if there was a tariff then we’ll pay it,” he said speaking exclusively to Auto Retail Agenda.

He added that this promise still stands for any new Brexit date, should any tariffs be imposed.

Sytner completes supercar developments

Supercar retailer Sytner’s multi-million-pound investment in its property portfolio has met two targets with the opening of brand new Mercedes-Benz and Porsche centres.

It has spent £10 million on the four acre Mercedes-Benz of Carlisle site which is first UK retail centre to have the new Mercedes-Benz CI due to be rolled out throughout the rest of the MB network. The retail group has also just opened its new Porsche Centre Edinburgh, one of the four Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur Centres in the UK.

Other projects include building a five-storey JLR centre by the M25, one of only eight ‘Global Statement’ sites worldwide and the only one of its type in the UK, a new BMW centre in Cardiff and it recently opened the doors of a new Guy Salmon Land Rover centre in Knutsford.

Its Edinburgh and Birmingham Lamborghini showrooms have also had new CI.

Retailers buoyed by sales increase

Retailers are more optimistic going into the early summer with new figures showing that sales rose for the first time in five months in April.

The Confederation of British Industry said the later timing of Easter this year probably helped push its monthly sales balance up to +13, meaning more retailers reported sales rising than falling.

The index suffered its biggest fall in 17 months in March when it sank to -18. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of zero for April.

Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI’s chief economist, said: “It’s encouraging to see retailers with more of a spring in their step than in recent months. The recent pick up in real wages is a welcome support to the sector, making the pound in people’s pockets stretch that bit further.”

The CBI said retailers were more optimistic about sales in the month ahead than they had been in March.

https://reut.rs/2XLL3UB

WORLD NEWS

Chinese EV start-up prefers lease model to retailers

Chinese start-up Aiways will use leasing rather than retailers when its U5 full-electric SUV arrives in the UK early next year with charges of around £350 per month and contracts of 24, 36 or 48 months.

https://bit.ly/2USQ8NH

Tesla Q1 results shock analysts

Tesla shocked the trade with a bigger-than-forecast Q1 loss of £544 million following a drop in deliveries and its biggest ever debt repayment in February of £713m. Revenues stood at £3.5 billion, down from the £4bn analysts expected.

It built 77,100 cars in the period and delivered 63,000, a 31% drop from the 97,000 handed over in Q4 last year.

STOCKWATCH

Closing prices at 26 April and weekly movement

Inchcape loses earlier gains, Motorpoint down

BCA 208.8p (-3.2p)

Cambria 59.5p (+1.0p)

Caffyns 395.0p (n/c)

Inchcape 618.5p (-17.5p)

Lookers 91.0p (-2.0p)

Marshall Motor Holdings 164.0p (-4.5p)

Motorpoint 174.0p (-13.5p)

Pendragon 22.6p (-0.1p)

Vertu 34.7p (-0.3p)

LAUNCH DIARY

Mercedes-Benz V-class. Two diesel engines, standard, long or extra-long wheelbase. From £48,285.

Peugeot Expert. Revised LCV range with WLTP compliant engines. From £21,320.

COMING UP

Tuesday: Nationwide House Price Index

Thursday: Bank of England interest rate decision

8 May: Vertu full-year results

8 May: Auto Retail Live Q2 Briefing. 9am. Click here to register.

MONEY MATTERS

Twitter Q1 ad revenue breaks £500m

Twitter’s Q1 advertising revenue climbed 18% to £522 million despite seeing a year-on-year drop in monthly active users.

Advertising income showed an increase in total ad engagements of 23% for the period. Average monthly users fell 2% to 330m against Q1 2018 but visitors using Twitter daily via a platform able to show ads increased 12% to 134m year on year.

https://bit.ly/2KXLgCz

Businesses paid more tax last year

British business paid £196 billion in tax last year, up from £188bn the year before, and 27% of all tax revenue.

The CBI said corporation tax accounted for 31% (£60bn) of total tax revenue from businesses, Employer’s NIC for 32% (£63bn), business rates for 14% (£28bn), fuel duties for 6% (£12bn) and other business taxes for 17% (£33bn).

Click here to read this weeks blog;  do workshop cameras really deliver a benefit?

John Swift

Editor

Auto Retail Agenda

Tags: Auto Protect, Drover, DVLA, JLR, Lookers, subscription, VW