Moves to help dealers weather the storm of Britain’s economic downturn have resulted in dramatic bottom-line improvements across the BMW GB network.

Support from the German company has helped steer retailers to their best return on sales performance for six years, claims sales director Sean Green.

“We offered a small amount of financial support to the network to help them through the recession and it has proved to have been a remarkably successful exercise.

“On average, they are now returning comfortably in excess of 2% on sales, a figure that compares well with the rest of the industry.

“Our order bank is three times the size it was at this time last year, so the mood of the network is one of confidence,” he said.

Speaking as the super-economy EfficientDynamics version of the 320d model was being launched to the media, Green told AM: “Things are looking good.

“Our dealers are making more money and all the signs are positive for the rest of this year.”

However, a few struggling BMW dealerships have been put into fresh hands during the recession.

“We have had three ownership changes in the last 12 months and all have been carried out in a seamless manner.

“The reason for our intervention last year was to keep the network stable and it worked – we have to make sure our dealers have financial stability because these are the people who deliver our standard of service and maintain good relations with our customers.”