3rd Jun 2019 10:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - Car dealer Caffyns PLC swung to an annual loss due to a "challenging" trading period, it said Monday.
Caffyns posted a pretax loss of GBP428,000 for the year up to March 31, after a pretax profit of GBP1.2 million the year before. This was mainly due to some pension cost and property impairments.
On an underlying basis, Caffyns' pretax profit improved marginally to GBP1.4 million.
Revenue fell 3.1% to GBP209.2 million, and the company has kept the dividend for the year flat at 22.5 pence a share.
Like-for-like new car sales fell 10% year-on-year, compared to a 2.8% decline in the company's sector, but like-for-like used car sales rose 5.9%. Aftersales revenue climbed 7.4%.
New car sales were the main drag to performance, Caffyns said, with the sector hit by a new worldwide emissions-testing regime. This has created a shortage of new cars from "most" brands.
"This was quickly rectified for some brands but, for others, the impact lingered well into the second half of the year and was a significant drag on both revenue and profit," said the company.
Looking ahead, Caffyns is cautious with the UK new car market expected to continue to decline. The firm is well funded, it said, and it is confident on long-term prospects.
Shares were untraded on Monday morning in London, last quoted at 372 pence each.
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