A Derby headquartered car supermarket giant has reported a fall in profits and revenues after the coronavirus lockdown impacted one of its busiest months.
Motorpoint, which is headquartered at the Wyvern Business Park, said that in the 12 months to March 31, revenues fell by £40 million from £1.058 billion to £1.058 billion.
And its pre-tax profits also fell from £22.2 million to £18.8 million, a fall of 15.3%.
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Last month, car dealers were allowed to reopen and Motorpoint, which has car supermarkets across the country, said that its trading performance in June had been “stronger than anticipated”.
Chief executive Mark Carpenter said: "As a group, we responded quickly to what was a fast-changing situation in the final and typically busiest month of our reporting year, and at all times our number one priority has been the safety and wellbeing of our team and customers.
"I am proud of the way that all of my colleagues responded, having been confronted with an unprecedented set of circumstances.
"Inevitably, the need to temporarily close our sites across the 海角视频 resulted in our full year trading performance being impacted, despite trading positively in the months prior to lockdown.
"However, we made great strategic and operational progress during the year, from the successful opening of our 13th location in Swansea - the first site which does not prepare its own vehicles - to the launch of our dedicated preparation centre in Peterborough, which has helped to improve the speed and effectiveness with which we prepare vehicles, in turn enhancing margins through sharper operational discipline.
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"We have continued to invest in the business across our operations, e-commerce and marketing capabilities to provide greater agility to our strategic execution, and to build a sustainable, market-leading platform for the long term.
"Nevertheless, the group's strong cash generation has still allowed us to return over £20 million to shareholders during the period.
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"We continued to grow our market share during the year and are very pleased with the strong level of customer take-up of our recently launched fully contactless home delivery and reserve and collect services, particularly post the year end.
"With the large footprint of our sites, we were able to rapidly put in place enhanced hygiene and socially distanced protocols and have been encouraged by the response from our customers since our sites reopened in June.
"Although significant uncertainty remains as a result of Covid-19, we are pleased that in the short time since our sites reopened, trading volumes have been ahead of the equivalent period last year and margins at least in line with seasonal norms.”