Scottish-based car dealer group Peter Vardy has published its half-year trading performance showing a return on sales of 3.9%.

The company saw profits rise 64% year-on-year in the first six months of 2015, with EBITDA of £8.7 million, an average profit of £791,000 per dealership, while turnover increased by just over 10% to £224m.

The company said the increase in profitability in relation to turnover arose from improved colleague retention, a strengthened senior team and more efficient overall trading.

The group operates the largest Jaguar Land Rover retailer outlet in the UK, has top quartile performance with Porsche, leads Vauxhall network profitability and remains highly profitable with BMW and Mini, it said.

And its CarStore used car supermarket in Glasgow is set to exceed 4,000 sales in 2015, and will be joined by a second CarStore at Dundee.

Group website visits in 2015 are expected to exceed 3m, a 65% increase on 2014, with online enquiries predicted to be 52% up.

In keeping with its central philosophy of giving back to the communities in which it operates, Peter Vardy will also make a donation of 10 per cent of its profits to the Peter Vardy Foundation, its charitable arm.

All new employees are given £100 to donate to a charity of their choice and the company has fostered an environment where colleagues have a genuine desire to make a contribution to their communities.

Chief executive Peter Vardy said: "The group remains proud of its achievements since it was founded in 2006. It is now far stronger and on course to realise its ambition to become a world class motor retail organisation.

“I am particularly pleased that in a survey almost nine tenths of our more than 800-strong staff indicated that they are proud to work here and that 80% of them would recommend Peter Vardy to friends and family as a great place to work.

“Ours, I believe, is a work environment which genuinely offers a range of career opportunities and operates a leadership development programme which focuses on future talent.”

Peter Vardy Group operates six Vauxhall volume dealerships in Aberdeen, Perth, Kirkcaldy, Edinburgh, Motherwell and Dalgety Bay (Fife) and five prestige dealerships selling Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, BMW and Mini vehicles as well as Scotland’s biggest indoor used car showroom, CarStore, at Hillington, Glasgow.