Hendy Group came under pressure in 2024 turning in a pre-tax loss of -£18.1m compared to £7.2m profit in the prior year on turnover down 5% to £1.01bn.
In results filed at Companies House it said 2024 was “exceptionally challenging” with the suspension of sale of GAP products in February that year and a marked deterioration in new vehicle profitability as a result of the negative impact of the ZEV Mandate.
“These figures reflect what has been a very challenging trading period for the company across 2024 and 2025 and for the motor retail sector as a whole,” said Paul Hendy, chief executive officer at Hendy Group.
“Now in 2026 we’re seeing an improvement in performance, thanks to the effort and commitment from our colleagues and a transformation programme that is delivering change in all parts of the organisation.”
The group took remedial action to stem losses, exiting from the Maserati and Moke franchise, reducing its representation with Honda, closing a used car supermarket and disposing of three leasehold sites. It also reduced headcount by 9%.
During the year the group opened a new site at Tonbridge for Vauxhall and Peugeot and added Peugeot, Fiat and Citroen to its existing Stellantis site in Poole.
It said post year-end it had incurred “substantial losses” and continued to experience significant pressure on trading volumes and margins across its retail operations.
These losses impacted liquidity and the group breached several financial covenants throughout 2025 and into the early part of 2026.
It said the group’s shareholders had remained supportive throughout and recapitalised the business in March 2025 to the magnitude of £11.5m.
In 2024 it appointed Duncan McPhee as COO. In 2025 and 2026 it undertook a restructuring programme to drive it back to profitability focusing on OEM representation, operational processes to improve vehicle volume and margin and further reductions to cost base.
It also strengthened the executive and operational boards. In April 2026 it successfully refinanced with new lenders and had repaid the term loan with existing lenders in full.
It said moving to a regional operating model is giving structure and focus to the retail strategy, and new procurement systems and processes have been introduced to leverage the scale of the
Hendy now represents 22 brands across 44 sales and aftersales locations across the south coast of England, adding Geely, BYD, Omoda and Jaecoo and Chery within the past year.
It has invested in a new sales excellence programme, which is being used to develop the capabilities of sales staff.
“We have a three-year plan to re-engineer the business to be more agile, efficient and customer focused,” said Hendy.
“We have so much to be proud of, having been around for over 165 years and with over 1,500 employees, and the steps we are taking will ensure we can continue to be agile, ready to adapt to a rapidly evolving motor retail market.”
Last year Hendy Group confirmed the addition of Martin Reay as CFO and Daksh Gupta as non-executive chairman to its main board, and a new team of general managers now report to three new regional operations directors. This year Hendy further strengthened the group’s operations board with four senior appointments.
