28 June 2021

Ford Retail, the manufacturer-owned auto retailer, saw a £5.64m profit become a £5.24m loss in the year ended 31 December 2020. Overall revenue fell from £1.71m to £1.4m.

The company blamed losses on Covid-19 closures, adding that successful fleet sales lessened the impact of the losses.

Vehicle sales fell 18% due to lockdown, with the parts business declining 19% in the year, and workshop sales falling 25%. Gross margins were down £25m but expenses declined £17m thanks to cost controls, capping the EBIT decrease to £6.7m from £12.8m. However, Ford Retail claimed £11.4m in furlough and other UK government support.

Ford Motor Company is represented on the board by a director “to ensure the likely effects of decisions in the long term are aligned with the parent company’s long term strategy”.

Interestingly, rather than concentrating on its traditional volume sales focus, the company stated Ford’s commitment to its UK customers “is to invest and grow its leading CV business and provide passenger vehicle customers with a more defined portfolio of sports utility vehicles and crossovers, exciting performance derivative and iconic imported models with aftersales support supplied by our strong dealer network”.

Although the Fiesta was the UK’s best-selling vehicle in 2020, so far in 2021, it has been beaten by the Vauxhall Corsa.

Tags: Ford, Ford Retail