The boss of Vertu Motors has said the car dealership chain is being more aggressive in the market and has returned to the acquisition trail as it looks to grow.
Robert Forrester, Vertu’s CEO, said the company has attempted to shake off the difficulties in the market using an aggressive marketing campaign in September, which saw the company spend £600,000 on adverts.
Mr Forrester said: “We have decided to increase our marketing spend in September by £600,000 - we we’re in cinema, on TV and on the radio - and we have driven sales as a result. And we made more money in September 2019 than we did last September.”
His comments were made after the company revealed its financial results for the six months ending August 31 2019, saw turnover increase to £1.65bn, up from £1.56bn during the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Vertu’s operating profit also increased from £18.6m to £20.3m. However, profit after tax fell from £14m to £13m.
Vertu said that sales of new cars, which fell 10.1%, was largely caused by the Brexit-hit pound, which is discouraging car makers from supplying to the 海角视频 and pushing up prices.
When asked whether he was concerned about further impacts Brexit could have on the market, Mr Forrester said: “I don’t think there is any point speculating as we have no idea what is going to happen. We have to focus on what we can control. I can control costs, cash control and how aggressive we are in the market.”
Although new car sales fell by 10.1%, Vertu saw used car sales increase by 1.6% on a like-for-like basis. Fleet sales also grew by 13.8%.
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Mr Forrester also added that he was pleased with the progress of two businesses that Vertu had recently acquired, Hughes Mercedes-Benz and Vans Direct, and said he expected the company to be able to announce more acquisitions soon.
“Hughes Mercedes-Benz is now fully integrated within our Mercedes-Benz business,” he said. “Vans Direct in South Wales, we have pretty aggressive plans there. We have a lot of advertising and we plan to grow that business aggressively and it is performing pretty well.”
He added: “We think there is an opportunity and we have a number of acquisitions on the go at the moment. I would expected to execute one or two of those.
“This business has to get bigger. To invest in national campaigns you have to get bigger to get cost control.”
Following the results, Vertu announced it would be increasing its interim dividend by 9% to 0.6p per share. At the time of writing Vertu’s share price has rose to 33.45p per share, up from 32.55p at close of play on Tuesday.