Vines turnaround continues

BMW and MINI retailer Vines saw profit before tax grow from £3.9m to £5.7m in the year ended December 2022. The company’s turnover increased from £196.2m to £218.6m. It is the third year running of profit growth, following several years of losses up to 2021.

Although service labour margins were up, it warned the proliferation of OEM service packs, the competitive nature of older car service business and a shortage of vehicle technicians is putting pressure on this area. “This business will become increasingly competitive during 2023.”

Vines faced several years of losses in the late 2010s due to issues such as large numbers of pre-registrations eroding margins on nearly new cars. It lost £1.77m in 2018 when it also warned about margin pressure from service packs. This loss was repeated in 2019.

It lost £196k in 2020, when it received more than £2m in government grants, before starting its current recovery.