JCT600 expects to see sales accelerate towards £1bn mark

John Tordoff said JCT600’s turnover will be “nudging” £900m in 2013 following the car retailer’s acquisition of the Sheffield-based Gilder Group.

JCT600, one of the North’s biggest independent motor dealers, reported sales of £669m in the year ending December 2012, up 7.4 per cent on the previous year.

The Gilder deal strengthens the group’s position in South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and gives it a bigger slice of the lucrative Audi and Volkswagen market.

Mr Tordoff declined to say how much he paid for the £200m-turnover business, but said it was “a lot of money and by far the biggest acquisition we have ever done”.

Bradford-based JCT600 has 47 dealerships throughout Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and the North East and sells brands including Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Vauxhall and Volkswagen.

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, Mr Tordoff described 2012 as “a year of two halves” with a steady first half followed by an Olympic boost that powered growth throughout the second.

He said: “At first we thought it was all to do with the London Olympics and the feelgood effect. Then it just kept going and going and going.

“Whether that was coincidence or whether the Olympics gave everybody the excuse they needed to break free of the shackles and think ‘I’m sick of keeping my life on standstill; I need to get out and buy a new car, I need to go on holiday’, from the middle of last summer we noticed a real increase in sales across nearly all the businesses.”

Mr Tordoff said the improved performance has continued into the first four months of 2013 and the group is busier than it has ever been.

He added: “The price of cars has gone up, like the price of everything else has gone up. But when you look at the financing options that are available, the actual cost of getting into a car on a monthly basis has never been as cheap as it is today.

“The manufacturers are putting a lot of incentives into moving metal and it’s having the desired effect.”

Mr Tordoff said most of the group’s prestige brands performed very well during 2012 in spite of the downturn.

He added: “It’s because they represent best value. People are wanting the best they can get for the pound that they spend.

“The price differential between getting into an Audi or a Ford is not as wide as it used to be.

“A lot of the prestige brands are coming down and introducing cheaper cars and that’s having a big impact on the traditional volume brands like Ford and Vauxhall. Conversely, you have your Korean brands who have joined the fray and they are coming from the bottom up with some great products that are incredibly well priced.”

Mr Tordoff said the group’s new Kia business has gone “from strength to strength” and he would consider more acquisitions in this space.

Meanwhile, the group’s Porsche showroom in Leeds sold more cars than any of its national rivals last year, said Mr Tordoff.

“We are the second oldest Porsche dealer in the UK. We have been selling Porsche since 1967. We have got a good reputation among Porsche people,” he added. “I think the location is about as good as it gets.”

JCT600 sold around 700 cars last year from Porsche Leeds.

Mr Tordoff said the modern Porsche customer has moved on from the 1980s stereotype of City financier wearing red braces.

“He could be an accountant, a builder, a plumber, an electrician... he could be anything. They don’t all fit the mould any more.”

The group sold around 70 Ferraris last year from its refurbished Ferrari showroom in Leeds.

JCT600 financed the Gilder deal through retained profits and funding from Lloyds and HSBC.

The business now employs around 1,800 people.

Forecourts out, online in

FOR nine out of 10 people, the process of buying a car starts online, according to the chief executive of JCT600.

John Tordoff said: “The tyre kicking happens online these days, it doesn’t happen in showrooms and on used car forecourts.

“To make yourself stand out from the crowd you have got to have great presence online, but you also have got to have desirable stock that’s priced right.

“It’s a battleground on the internet. It’s just a giant catalogue of cars and people want to get to the front page of the catalogue and the only way you’re going to do that is by lowering your prices.”

The group saw pre-tax profits rise 47 per cent to £12.5m.