Stoneacre profits dip 6% to £22.9m in ‘challenging market’ conditions

Stoneacre turned in a strong performance in the year to April 2025 in the face of higher costs with pre-tax profits dipping -6.2% to £22.9m on turnover up 3.6% to £1.4bn.

It said the year saw “challenging market conditions” with the Budget increase in the National Minimum Wage and employer National Insurance payments.

It said to mitigate the effect of the ZEV Mandate, it had reviewed all expenditure but stopped short of redundancies.

“The board have focused on maximising revenues by continuing to operate all sales location seven days a week and provide weekend vehicle servicing at selected sites thus maintaining the customer first policy,” it said in accounts filed at Companies House.

During the period it sold 32,133 new retail cars and 34,130 used retail units. Like-for-like new and used vehicle gross profit performance grew 6% and 5.9% respectively.

The group expanded its relationships with Renault, Nissan, Peugeot and Vauxhall and took on BYD, Polestar for the first time.

Stoneacre has also agreed to represent Jaecoo and Omoda, Chery, Geely and Changan

Aftersales revenues grew 10.4%. It is improving its customer retention and now has 71,000 live service plans in place.

Stoneacre’s parts operation saw a 11.2% rise in turnover and a 9% increase in direct profit for the group.

The group’s auction business, which is based in Newark, auctioned 34,373 vehicles during the period compared to 31,082 last time.

It continues to develop its academy which is currently training 80 apprentices