Pendragon to reopen in June after £2.3m Q1 loss

Pendragon said it expected to open its dealerships from the start of June with new social distancing measures as the car retailer reported a £2.3m loss for the first quarter.

The underlying pretax loss of £2.3m in the three months to the end of March was lower than the £2.8m a year earlier despite the big impact on sales from closing branches in the Covid-19 shutdown, Pendragon said.

Pendragon said its performance in the first two months of 2020 was encouraging with profit up £5.1m at the end of February. March started well but profit was reduced by about £10m in the quarter because of reduced business as the economy shut down, the company said.

Pendragon reopened about 20 service centres in April to service or repair vehicles for key workers or customers heavily reliant on driving. It is now operating 125 of its 145 service centres with about 20% of technicians at work. Last week labour sales were just 17% of the level a year earlier.

The company said it expected to open its dealerships on 1 June as the government eases lockdown measures. It is changing layouts at its sites and implementing new procedures to enable social distancing in stores. Pendragon said it furloughed 80% of its workers at the peak and had taken government support on business rates and tax deferrals.

Bill Berman, Pendragon's chief executive, said: "The commercial consequences of a full lockdown have obviously affected the business, but we moved quickly to implement a broad range of actions to mitigate the enforced closure, and I am confident that we will emerge in a strong position as the current restrictions ease.

“We are now preparing to reopen from 1 June and will therefore have the capabilities in place to meet the full needs of our customers."