Just before the close of 2023, AM deputy editor Aimée Turner caught up with three AM100 dealer group leaders – Jason Cranswick (JC), chief operating officer of Marubeni Auto UK, which owns Norton Way Motors, RRG Group and HPL Motors; Chris Clark (CC), managing director of John Clark Motor Group; and Robert Forrester (RF), chief executive of Vertu Motors – to discover what are the opportunities of 2024 and what were the challenges of 2023.

How was your group’s trading performance in 2023?

JC: FY23 has brought back into question whether businesses are “management-driven” or “market driven”. Looking back to the past two years, for sure, the market has helped the automotive retail sector have a good run. In this financial year we have focused on making really good management decisions and finding countermeasures to the pressures of inflation, changes in consumer confidence and movements in vehicle supply. We are confident the actions we are taking will mean that our business will once again produce good shareholder value and material profitability.

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The latest AM industry special issue

Spotlight on the customer

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