Car dealer group puts improved profits partly down to social media efforts

Post by Steven Cox on 22nd February 2012
 in E-commerce, Finance, Retail

Raising its social media profile and investing in mobile phone apps have paid dividends for one of the UK's biggest car dealership networks.

Pendragon said yesterday it had managed to improve its performance despite "turbulent economic conditions", and partly attributed its success to its higher level of online marketing activity.

The Nottingham-based company, which owns the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone dealership chains, reported that this extra effort had helped drive a 49 per cent rise in visits to these companies' websites since 2009.

The group, which holds franchises for prestige car marques such as Jaguar, Porsche and Range Rover, as well as others for Ford, Fiat and Vauxhall, said that strong demand for new vehicles at the top end of its product range, along with growth of its used car sales through its Quicks car supermarkets, had compensated for falling sales of mainstream new car models.

Chief executive Trevor Finn said the company's online presence helped to distinguish it from many of its competitors, and that he hoped this would continue to contribute to its forward progress.

The group's underlying profits were 22 per cent higher in 2011, at £30.8million, despite a three per cent fall in total revenue.