Phoenix Car Company rises in east with opening of first capital franchise and profit vow

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 20:13

PHOENIX Car Company is to open its first franchise in Edinburgh as the group motors towards its "best profits ever".

The Paisley-based firm – which runs 17 dealerships across five Central Belt sites – will open a Mitsubishi franchise on the city's Seafield Road in January as part of its plans to take a 10 per cent share of the Scottish car sales market within the next ten years.

Phoenix already has a 3.5 per cent share of the market, but managing director John McGuire ruled out an expansion south of the Border.

News of the move into Edinburgh came as accounts filed at Companies House revealed the firm made a "dramatic" write-down in the year to 31 January, to give a 3.4 million pre-tax loss.

The deficit compared with a pre-tax profit of 249,000 during the previous financial year. Revenue fell by 6 per cent to 140m.

McGuire said the decision had been made to write down the value of the group's used car stock "fairly dramatically" to give Phoenix a clean slate.

He added: "The writedown made the accounts look pretty poor. But we've gone from our worst year ever and bounced back to what's going to be our best year ever. Up until the end of October, we've made much more profit than we ever have in the history of the group.

"In the first nine months of the year, we've made 2.6m. It's a phenomenal turnaround – the extension of the scrappage scheme has been good for new car sales and used car values have recovered."

McGuire said Phoenix was now on course to make more than 3m profit this year, adding he was pleased the company had not needed to close any of its branches in the past year, nor lose any staff.

Phoenix donated 118,000 to about 20 charities in the past year, including the Meningitis Trust and Cash for Kids.