Porsche Retail Group, the factory owned dealer  turned  in the highest profit per employee in the Motor Trader Top 200 Dealer Groups.

The profit per employee was £65,189 in the rankings although this was substantially lower than the £76,755 delivered last time.

It was followed by CEM Day which delivered £52,467 per employee. In third slot was McLean & Appleton (£34,867), followed by Gravells (£34,131) and Mitchell Group (£33,878).

Report Author Chris Oakham said dealers had gone through a tough year. Because of the time lag with companies reporting at Companies House, nearly 80% of dealer group results in this edition of the Motor Trader Top 200 Franchised Dealer Groups report on the 2023 calendar year.

“This could be said to be the first ‘normal’ year after the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. New car and parts supplies eased, although used cars were still suffering a hangover from the lack of new sales 2020 to 2022.

“The improvement in trading conditions was, though, hit by a ‘perfect storm’: pressure on gross margins; falling used car prices in the last quarter of 2023; inflationary increases in expenses and overheads; and rising interest rates affecting borrowing costs.

“Competition was tough across all departments weighing down on gross margins. Many groups, in their financial accounts, mentioned the debilitating effect on gross margins of falling used car prices in the last quarter of 2023.

“And many noted the shortage of used cars up to three years old – the most profitable segment – because of the dearth of new sales during the pandemic.”

Rank	Top 200 Rank	Company	Latest Pre-tax Profit (£000)	Latest Employees	Profit per Employee (£)
1	41	Porsche Retail Group	22,034	338	65,189
2	62	CEM Day	30,326	578	52,467
3	48	McLean & Appleton	13,598	390	34,867
4	118	Gravells	5,154	151	34,131
5	153	Mitchell Group	3,591	106	33,878
6	34	Cambria Automobiles	20,790	628	33,105
7	42	Currie Motors	19,518	688	28,369
8	108	Hildenborough Group	4,273	158	27,046
9	181	Richard Sanders	1,941	74	26,232
10	27	Dick Lovett Group	24,353	964	25,262