08 March 2020

Vauxhall expects retailer profitability to remain broadly flat in 2020, but is promising a rise in return-on-sales figures in 2021 after the network reorganisation started in 2018 has been completed.

Speaking exclusively to Auto Retail Agenda, James Taylor, sales director, said: “In terms of year-on-year profitability, net worth profitability is broadly flat. And that’s almost the same for the last two years, to be fair. It’s partly in terms of the network changing.”

This timeline is running behind Vauxhall’s initial expectations. Managing director Stephen Norman had promised a network average RoS figure of around 1% for 2019. However, the figure was actually 0.4%.

Mr Taylor added: “I think it’s going to be 2021 when we can really start to make the strides forward. We will have had the network consolidation pretty much done then. And I think that will be a year where hopefully we can get to the returns that Steve [Norman] outlined.”

* Read the full interview with James Taylor in sister publication Auto Retail Bulletin. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up for a free trial here.

Tags: Vauxhall