VERTU Motors has reported record half-year results and is eyeing more acquisitions in Scotland.
The motor dealer said the new and used car markets continued to soar.
Meanwhile its servicing operations also recorded an improved performance.
Revenue increased 29.5 per cent from £837.2 million to more than £1.08 billion in the six months to August 30 while pre-tax profit was up 48 per cent from £8.6m to £12.8m.
It ended the trading period with net cash of £34.4m on its balance sheet, up from £25.7m at the same point in 2013.
The AIM-listed group, which upped its interim dividend 16.7 per cent to 0.35p, indicated car manufacturers are continuing to offer attractive finance deals.
Chief executive Robert Forrester said a recent Saturday in October had been the company's best ever single day with 1,137 vehicles sold.
He also indicated September, a key month as new registration plates come out, had seen Vertu booking a 9.3 per cent like-for-like rise in sales, outperforming the wider market which posted a 5.9 per cent increase.
Vertu upped its presence in Scotland, where it trades under the Macklin Motors brand, to nine dealerships with the purchase of two Hyundai sites in Edinburgh in November last year.
Mr Forrester suggested further deals are anticipated and said: "We are looking at transactions across the UK including Scotland. There is quite a lot happening."
The Hyundai sites in Edinburgh were said to be performing well and a refurbishment of those is planned.
The Ford and Mazda dealership at Hamilton has already been overhauled while Mr Forrester said trading at the Glasgow Nissan operation had been particularly pleasing.
He said: "The Scottish market is good and our dealerships are doing well. There is a lot of activity going on in Scotland at the moment."
While there had been no noticeable sales trends before or after the independence referendum vote Mr Forrester said the Edinburgh sites had anecdotally seen a large increase in new car enquiries after the result was known.
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