Motor Trader caught up with Darren Ardron, managing director at Perrys Group to get his take on the market and where retailing is going in 2025.
“It’s still a good industry, an exciting industry, a vibrant industry.” Darren Ardron was speaking to Motor Trader as the group released its latest results. It was a good year. Perrys recovered its mojo in 2024 with pre-tax profits up 37% to £2.6m. The group polished its Chinese credentials taking on Omoda & Jaecoo and is looking at boosting its representation with other brands as well. And it continues to drive its digital offer and push hard on omnichannel retailing. Ardron is very clear that customers still want to visit showrooms.
On the turnaround on profitability, Ardron said: “For us, last year it was good to see things improve. It wasn’t a bad result the year before, but it was good to see things improve in what was probably quite a challenging year as well. Overall, we were quite pleased with it. We worked on quite a few initiatives last year.
“If we go back to 2023, there was a real decline around the back of Q3 and it was quite brutal some of these values were dropping around 10%. How do you deal with it? You just have to take the pain. You must be very keen on pricing, reduce your pricing and become very competitive but ultimately that effects your margin because whatever you paid for the car is whatever you paid for the car. The way that we do it is we price the car to the market and if the values have fallen you just have to turn that vehicle into cash and start again and invest it into something else.”
The group has picked things up and turned them around for the better. Teamwork at Perrys is highlighted as one of the most important factors driving success.
“A huge credit to the staff. You cannot do it without the staff and we are very fortunate that we have a lot of longstanding members of the team that work well together. One of the things you can do when you work together for a long time, you can deal with all sorts of business challenges that get thrown your way. We all came through Covid together, it’s the same team that I’ve got now. You learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Having a strong team around you is a huge help,” says Ardron.
Perrys has had a good start to Q1 of 2025, but Ardron does not deny the extent of pressure around electric vehicles.
Driving sustainability
Over the past year, there has been an acceleration in sales of EVS. June saw EVs take a quarter of the market. But there is still a long way to go and EV sales are falling well short of the Government ZEV Mandate.
“Consumers are getting a little bit more used to EVs but it’s still not for everybody. For every customer we see for a new car, we will present them with the option of an EV at the same time. It doesn’t suit everybody. When I look at where a lot of our businesses our sat geographically, particularly as we go to certain places in the North-West, it is still very challenging because of the infrastructure. I think 21% of everything we sold new last year was EV, so we sort of levelled with where the SMMT were yet not all of our brands were fully engaged with EVs. Pro rata we probably overperformed with the brands that we did have.”
Perrys has a strong understanding of EVs and a strong desire to impart this information. With a dedicated and bespoke training course launched last year, Perrys staff are all well prepared to engage with customers.
There are two main concerns expressed by Ardron when it comes to EVs. The first being the big hike in ZEV Mandate targets and the second being lack of incentives for consumers to make the switch to EVs. Ardron was speaking before the government announced in July its £650m for EV funding
“You have got a number of customers at this moment in time that were the early adopters of EV and it’s common knowledge that the values of some of these cars have taken a big hit. We have found a few instances where customers went into EV and then went back to ICE products. It is a little bit of a stretch to get to the ZEV Mandate. We do still need some form of consumer stimulus to get there. We need some Government push,” says Ardron.
“There’s two big things they could do. Number one, they could look at some form of VAT incentive for electric. With customers paying at 20% VAT, let’s suppose that was brought down to 10%, that would help. The other thing the Government have got to look at is the equalisation between public and private charging. I drive an EV and I love it but I’m quite fortunate that I have got a charger at home. What you find is if you’re in one of these motorway service stations even just topping up to put 20-30 minutes of electric in, the bills are very expensive. You pay 20% VAT on public charging otherwise 5% on home charging.”
Despite the remaining challenges with regards to EV adoption in the UK. Ardron does not deny the progress that has been made.
He says: “I’ve been an EV driver now for coming up to two years. You know two years ago it could be quite daunting thinking where am I going to find the next chargepoint? Now, if I take my journey from home to work, there’s at least five or six places that I could stop to charge the car and if I go back two years there was just one.”
Refreshed portfolio
Perrys represents Ford, Kia, Mazda, Vauxhall, Citroën, CUPRA, MG, Peugeot, SEAT. In addition to what would be thought of as mainstream brands, Perrys now represents new Chinese entrants Omoda & Jaecoo.
Ardron says: “It is blatantly obvious, it was blatantly obvious and it continues to be blatantly obvious that some of these Chinese entrants will be good value for customers. You’ve almost got to cover every angle now. We’ve gone with Omoda & Jaecoo. It’s early days but it is looking like it could be a great success.”
With the sheer number of new Chinese brands to arrive in the UK, it seems inevitable that Perrys will expand its portfolio with some of these.
“Part of my job is to keep in contact with potential new partners. I am in conversations at this moment in time with other Chinese brands. The hard part is knowing which ones because it looks like there are going to be lots of Chinese brands coming into the UK. Some will do very well and some won’t. I guess it’s a bit like backing the right horse really. You can do a lot of research. A lot of these brands are already well established in China and other parts of the world,” notes Ardron.
“We’ve got an influx of Chinese brands. What will that look like? If we look at figures from the SMMT there is no real indication that the market is going to grow much above 2 million in the next few years but the number of brands will probably increase by 30. You don’t have to have a degree in economics to work out that with more entrants coming in someone is going to suffer. I suspect everybody, a lot of the mainstream brands will lose out on share to these new entrants.”
Traditional retailing
While online buying and digital solutions are now deeply embedded in the car buying journey, all dealers can agree that the value in face-to-face contact with consumers remains invaluable.
Despite consumers completing some of the necessary car buying steps online, consumers themselves have also highlighted the enjoyment that comes with visiting a physical showroom and being able to engage with a dealer. Consumers want direct support and are more likely to trust that a conversation in person will provide impartial advice. When buying from a dealership, the customer can be reassured that they will receive support throughout the vehicle’s life.
Ardron says: “It certainly appears right now that consumers still want that face-to-face contact. People start the journey a lot more online these days and do research online but there is no evidence at the minute to suggest that customer does not want to make the last transaction in a facility.
“We have evidence of other organisations that have tried the online solution, the Cazoo’s of this world, and even though they had a brilliant platform it obviously for whatever reason did not appeal to the public. So, I still think you need that blend of both.”
The future of automotive
“There’s a skills shortage and a little bit of an ageing workforce. We are so fortunate as a group that we have got a high percentage of long-established members of staff. It is quite difficult to attract new people into the sector and if you take the technician scenario, if you bring in technicians now it will be very different to technicians brought in 20 years ago. These are almost now, diagnostic technicians because of course working on an EV is very different to working on petrol cars,” says Ardron.
Perrys Group partnered with West Notts College in a work experience scheme towards the end of last year. Technicians gain experience in the workshops as part of their motor vehicle technician studies at the college. The Group has introduced various initiatives to attract young people to a career in automotive. With the apprenticeships at West Notts College, for example, young people can earn while learning valuable skills.
Ardron adds: “We are always looking at new initiatives to bring in the new generation. I think one of the difficulties that we find, and I think most people find is there is a lot of choice for the new generation out there now. Maybe the motor industry hasn’t quite got the appeal that it had many years ago and it’s sad really because it’s still a really good industry.
“There’s a lot more legislation around than there once was and that can make it harder to deal in. I think you’ve just got so many more opportunities now whether it’s AI, marketing or tech. We’ve found it’s more difficult to recruit. Last year, we tried more initiatives internally to try and work with our staff. We are better keeping our staff than externally recruiting.”
Dealers and manufacturers alike have made significant progress in rolling out apprenticeship schemes and ensuring the opportunity to join the automotive industry is clear.
In terms of careers, there are many choices and potential avenues available across various industries.
Reflecting on this, Ardron says: “I would say just come and have a look at the industry. I have been in it a long time. It’s still a good industry, it’s still a very vibrant industry, and it’s still a very exciting industry. And, actually, we are about to embark upon a whole lot of change. There’s a lot more digital transformation to come and we’ve talked about it numerous times today about all the new entrants. It can be a very well renumerated industry as well.”
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