Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Further fall in new car sales for Arnold Clark

Arnold Clarks dealership on Balfield Road, Dundee.
Arnold Clarks dealership on Balfield Road, Dundee.

Motor dealer Arnold Clark said it expected sales of new cars to continue to decline this year.

The warning comes after newly filed accounts show the firm’s new car sales dipped by 2.6% last year.

The firm’s new car sales have fallen for each of the last four years – from 91,477 vehicles in 2014, to 68,344 last year.

Chief executive and group managing director Edward Hawthorne said the company’s fall was ahead of a UK-wide 6.8% decline in new car registrations.

He said Arnold Clark would be impacted by a further industry slump in new car sales this year.

“With continued uncertainty around Brexit, we expect market conditions to continue to be challenging with SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) forecasting a reduction in new car registrations of 2.3% in 2019,” he said.

“As a group we anticipate that we will feel some impact from this but this will be offset by modest underlying growth in the used car market.”

While new car registrations declined, a 9.5% jump in used car sales meant Arnold Clark’s overall sales and profits rose last year.

The group recorded sales of £4.2 billion for the year ending December 31 2018, an increase from £3.9bn in 2017.

Pre-tax profits increased from £106.6 million in 2017 to £113.5m last year.

Mr Hawthorne said: “The previously observed decline in available new car stock in 2017 has continued in 2018 and was impacted further by new EU regulations on emissions testing.

“In addition to this, the severe winter weather conditions in early March resulted in many of our branches being unable to open for several days at what is a critical time for new car sales.

“Overall growth in revenue of 7.8% was primarily driven by used car sales with units sold increasing by 9.5% to 238,977.

“As a result of a continued focus on operational efficiency, we have been able to achieve improved vehicle margins, resulting in an increase in operating profit to £125.5m.”

He said the firm had made a “strong start” to 2019 by focusing on having the right product mix and giving good value for money.

rmclaren@thecourier.co.uk