The UK’s largest car dealer group, Pendragon PLC, has announced that it expects to make a loss of £30m this year because of falling car sales. It is planning to close 75 of its chain of dealerships, and make up to 2500 people redundant.
Pendragon has seen a 12 per cent drop in sales over the last year, with registrations falling by 21.4 per cent in the last three months alone.
Pendragon, which recently took over Reg Vardy and whose outlets include Stratstone, Evans Halshaw and Chatsfield, is already implementing cost-cutting initiatives to the tune of £60 million.
The dealer group’s share price has dropped from 60p at the start of the year to under 6p today.
"Assuming no significant further downturn in economic activity between now and the year end, we expect to report a full year loss before exceptional items for 2008 of £30m," the company said in a statement.
