Lookers chairman Ian Bull ‘sorry’ to be stepping down from car retail PLC

By Tom Sharpe

19 December 2022

Lookers chairman Ian Bull has said that he is “sorry” to be stepping down from his role with the car retail PLC at the end of this year.

The AM100’s second-placed business by turnover revealed that the Dominos Pizza and Dunelm director, who joined the business in October 2021, revealed the move in a statement issued via the London Stock Exchange this morning.

Former Toyota GB managing director and existing Lookers senior independent director Paul Van der Burgh will assume the role of interim non-executive chairman January 1.

Meanwhile, non-executive director Sue Farr will assume the role of interim senior independent director.

Commenting on his Lookers exit as the group’s board commenced its search for a new chairperson, Bull said: “I am sorry to be leaving at this exciting time for Lookers, with the business trading well and continuing to perform strongly.”

Paul Van der Burgh, said that Bull had been “instrumental in helping us to develop and implement our strategic priorities”, adding: “I would like to thank him on behalf of the board and wish him well for the future.”

Lookers said today (December 19) that it was making strong progress in the delivery of its strategic priorities ahead of the release of a post year-end trading update for the year ending December 31, 2022, in early January.

It also confirmed that trading for the year remained “in line with expectations”.

Lookers increased its full-year profit expectations to £75 million and kicked-off a £15m share buyback programme after reporting strong performance in a Q3 trading update back in October.

Commenting on the group’s Q3 result and a projected full-year performance which would leave the group 16.8% down on a record 2021, despite “significant cost inflationary pressures”, Lookers chief executive Mark Raban said: “Our intense focus on driving self-help operational efficiencies across the business and ensuring ongoing strong vehicle margin retention means that we are increasing our profit expectations for the full year.”