CAR dealer Eastern Holdings has lifted profits by nearly seven per cent to £9.6 million as larger display areas helped drive higher sales at its flagship Luxury Car Village in Edinburgh.

The company, which operates Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Mini and Toyota dealerships, reported used car sales up 10 per cent in the year ended December 31. Sales of new cars grew three per cent, notes Eastern in accounts newly available at Companies House.

Eastern hiked profits and turnover, to nearly £550 million from £508m, as new registrations in Scotland edged by 0.16 per cent, and in the UK by 2.2 per cent.

“Our new dealerships at Edinburgh’s Luxury Car Village were designed with much larger display areas and as a result we are enjoying a very healthy increase across all our franchises,” writes company secretary Nasser Mohammed in the accounts.

“Our aftersales departments had a similar success story with revenues increasing by nine per cent across the group.”

The company said the accounts covered the August launch of its new three-acre Nissan and Mazda dealerships at its Edinburgh Luxury Car Village at Newbridge, where Eastern said a range of its franchises are represented over an 18-acre site. Mr Mohammed said the firm exited its Alfa Romeo, Suzuki and SEAT franchises over the period after reviewing franchises where it had “no depth, size or scale”.

Since year end, Eastern opened a Car Deal Warehouse Superstore at Newbridge. It has begun work on a Mercedes Benz dealership at Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh, and is developing two franchised developments in Stirling. All three are due to open next year.