Car dealership Peter Vardy is celebrating record sales and profits in a year of “significant change”.
The motor group counts Dundee, Perth and Kirkcaldy sites among its seven car supermarkets in Scotland.
It also operates five franchise dealerships for Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, BMW, and Mini, including a Porsche Centre in Perth’s Tweed Place.
Newly filed accounts for Peter Vardy Holdings show turnover for the group reached £560.7 million in 2021, an increase from £440.6m in 2020. Pre-tax profits rose from £9.3m to £11m.
Peter Vardy, group chief executive, said: “2021 represented a significant year of change as we decided to end our successful partnership with Vauxhall after 15 strong years of working together.
“In July 2021, we transformed our six former Vauxhall sites into used car supermarkets and underwent a full rebrand moving from Peter Vardy CarStore to Peter Vardy CARZ.
“This change significantly increased our brand representation throughout Scotland.”
Peter Vardy on demand for used cars
Boosting the company’s performance has been strong demand – and rising prices – for second hand cars.
Mr Vardy describes this as “unprecedented” with the business making record margin on sales.
He adds: “Used cars were appreciating in value month on month and demand at an all-time high.
“We seized this opportunity by empowering our centralised stock buying teams and launching our GoodBye Car product, purchasing vehicles directly from consumers.
“These actions resulted in our used vehicle turnover increasing by 59%.”
CarMoney financing arm
Developing the CarMoney finance brokering business has also been a focus. In 2021 it brokered £97m of loans to UK customers.
The group has also developed a tech platform called SilverBullet. This allow used cars to be sold fully online and delivered directly to a customer’s door.
The company said the combined revenues of CarMoney, SilverBullet and Peter Vardy Holdings was £572m with profits of £26.1m.
Last year Peter Vardy Leasing was launched. It aims to lease 15,000 new vehicles as part of a five-year plan.
Conversation