South of England car dealer Caffyns has reported a 67% rise in profit before tax to £1.2 million from its first six months of trading this year.

The group grew revenues by 11.3% to £103.9 million during the period.

Underlying profit before tax was up 16% to £1,192,000 from £1,027,000 last year.

Caffyns said like for like new car volume was up by 6.5%, while used car volume increased by 7.4%.

Aftersales revenue rose by 3.9% on a like for like basis in the period.

Chief executive Simon Caffyn said: "New and used car sales remain encouraging and, whilst competition in aftersales remains strong, we are seeing improved sales as our three year car parc continues to grow in line with our higher new and used car sales.

"The UK market remains more buoyant than in many other parts of Europe and we expect manufacturers to continue looking to the UK to deliver higher sales, although care needs to be taken to ensure that this does not come at the expense of further pressure on margin.

"We continue to see growth in new car unit sales in line with the UK market and our focus on used car unit sales, margin and finance income, together with improvements to our aftersales retention processes, are driving further and sustainable improvements in profitability."

Capital expenditure in the half year was £1.96m of which £0.87m was incurred on the upgrade to its Eastbourne Audi dealership, £0.45m at the Skoda/Seat dealership in Tunbridge Wells and £0.25m at its Vauxhall dealership in Ashford.

In September Caffyns announced the sale of the part of itsfreehold site in Lewes which was surplus to requirements for £858,000 and the proceeds have now been received.