The Trade Centre Group passes £20m profit following fifth store opening

The UK’s fastest growing used car retailer, The Trade Centre Group, has reported another year of significant growth in earnings and profit while also becoming the UK’s most trusted car supermarket, according to consumer review website TrustPilot.

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In its financial year ending November 2018, the Group’s profits before tax increased 38% to £21 million (£15.2m in 2017) and turnover was up 44% to £257 million (from £178.4m).

The results include the first full-year’s trading at the Trade Centre Group outlet in Wednesbury, its three Welsh sites (Merthyr Tydfil, Neath and Abercynon) and part-year trading at its fifth outlet – the largest used car showroom in Europe – that opened in Coventry in April last year. The past year has also seen an increase in customer satisfaction with Trade Centre’s TrustPilot score up 8% to 9.4/10.

Employing almost 500 staff, The Trade Centre Group is privately owned by Chairman, Mark Bailey.

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Mark Bailey said: “We are naturally delighted with the financial achievements in the year, but we are incredibly proud of the hard work of our teams to create outstanding customer satisfaction: becoming the highest rated UK car supermarket group on TrustPilot is no mean feat!”

The Group expanded its board of directors during the year, appointing Tim Carr as Chief Financial Officer, Mark Sainsbury as Operations Director and, most recently, Nathan Bailey as Director of Vehicle Purchasing.

Chief Executive Officer Andy Coulthurst said:

“We have grown the business rapidly over the last three years and it was critical that we made the right appointments to underpin the next phases of growth.  As we head towards half a billion in turnover, we must maintain our industry-leading KPI’s whilst following our now well-established roll-out blueprint.  We will be making further investments in 2019 to improve our efficiency and service levels, including launching a new in-house dealer management system (DMS).”

The retailer holds a top five ranking with both leading industry media publishers, recently ranking fourth in the Automotive Management ID50 and fifth in the Motor Trader MT 50 published in November 2018.  The Trade Centre Group also ranked at 156 in the 14th annual Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250, published in October 2018.