Hatfields Group has published details of record profitability in a set of 2018 annual financial results which revealed a 7% increase in turnover and 17% growth in profit before tax.

The AM Awards 2019’s winner of the Best Financial Performance Award revealed that its total sales for the period to December 30, 2018, had risen from £278.3m in 2017 to £297.8m as its PBT soared by 17.2% to £9.6m (2017: £8.2m).

The AM100’s 55th-placed group – operator of five Jaguar, four Land Rover and one Volvo dealership across Yorkshire, the North West and Midlands – revealed that vehicle sales had increased by 6.7% to £17.3m during the year, with the number of units sold also growing by six per cent to 9,474 (2017: 8,935).

Aftersales revenues increased 11.5% to £20.4m, meanwhile.

The group said in its annual results statement that its performance had been "very respectable in the marketplace and up against challenging market conditions throughout the year".

The directors added: "The directors intend that the group continues to evaluate each opportunity to grow the business. The geographical location being the logical driver."

In March Wakefield-based Hatfields followed up its AM Awards success by becoming Jaguar’s retailer of the year with its Wakefield JLR operation.

A year earlier it had claimed the AM Awards’ Best Retail Group (upto and including ten sites) accolade after judges praised the operation for being a consistently strong local hero.

Return-on-sales has remained between 2% and 3% since 2010 and its trading performance is strong across the new and used car sales and aftersales departments.

That consistency and stability has resulted from a strategy centred on the premium brands Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo since the turn of the decade, the awards citation said at the time.