Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Pendragon, the UK’s biggest dealer group, confirmed it will develop its Quicks branded used car supermarket business this year.

The Quicks business, which was launched in 2010 and currently operates across seven sites, will be boosted by investments in better online brand awareness and a move to improve its stock mix profile and pricing.

Pendragon also said it would improve sales staff team efficiencies to “generate greater sales volume and profitability per car per car team”.

According to Pendragon’s  results for the year ended 31 December 2011 the volume of used cars sold through Quicks businesses was 6,700, a throughput per site of 950. Pendragon confirmed this was higher than the average achieved in the firm’s volume Evans Halshaw business.

Pendragon said during 2012 the group will be focussed on ensuring that the Quicks business generates improved performance. This, it said, will be achieved through

“As a consequence of the expected time it will take for the improvements necessary to reach our required standards in the Quicks business, we anticipate the operating costs invested in 2012 to be approximately £1.5m,” it said.

Quicks incurred start-up costs and operating losses of  £2.8m in 2010 and £4.8m in 2011.