MOTOR dealer Lookers has said it experienced a record quarter of sales and continues to outperform the overall new car market.
The group, which trades under the Lomond Group, Taggarts and Shields brands in Scotland, said the results in the three months to September 30 were ahead of expectations while margins improved across all of its operating areas.
According to Lookers its new car sales were 12.6 per cent higher in the first nine months of this year, ahead of the wider market which grew 9.1 per cent.
On a like-for-like basis the company said sales were running 11.7 per cent ahead, in a market which has increased by around 10 per cent. Lookers indicated margins on new cars had improved while it has also raised its investment in the fleet sector after seeing volumes grow 19.5 per cent.
Used car volumes were up 5.4 per cent compared with the previous year with margins also increasing.
The aftersales business was 6.3 per cent up on a like-for-like basis with Lookers stating it was seeing the benefit from customers buying longer term contracts for vehicle services.
The parts division was said to have seen turnover increase five per cent while profits were also up as a result of slightly higher margins and tight control on costs.
Lookers, run by Scottish born chief executive Andy Bruce, said: "These excellent results represent a further significant improvement in the financial performance of the company and build on what was already a strong performance in the previous year.
"The board believes this momentum is sustainable and that the group is positioned to deliver further growth in the final quarter of 2014 and produce results for the year slightly ahead of current market expectations."
In Scotland Lookers sells brands such as Audi, Land Rover, Hyundai and Jaguar through dealerships across central Scotland. Shares closed up 4.5p, or 3.5 per cent, at 133.25p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article