Auto Trader Group plc (LON:AUTO), the UK’s largest automotive platform, has announced full year results for the year ended 31 March 2025
Strategic overview
– Group revenue increased 5%, exceeding £600 million in the period, Group operating profit increased 8% and basic earnings per share increased 12%. Core Auto Trader revenue increased 7% and operating profit before Digital Services Tax also increased 7%. The impact of the UK’s Digital Services Tax was recognised for the first time with a £10.2 million charge to operating expenses in the year.
– Retailer revenue grew at 7%, with the number of retailer forecourts increasing 2% year-on-year. Growth came from smaller retailers which had a dilutive impact on the calculation of Average Revenue Per Retailer which, combined with fast speed of sale, resulted in an ARPR increase of 5% for the year. Much of this growth was driven by our annual pricing and product event in April 2024, which included our latest Auto Trader Connect module: Trended Valuations and enhanced Retail Check.
– Our competitive position remains strong with record numbers of both buyers and sellers using Auto Trader. We remain more than 10x larger than our nearest competitor.
– We launched Co-Driver, our suite of AI-enabled features, which supports retailers to create high quality adverts more efficiently, while significantly improving the experience for car buyers. We have seen consistently high levels of engagement from customers using this product since launch.
– Deal Builder, which enables car buyers to value their part-exchange, apply for finance and reserve a car, has continued to scale to c.2,000 retailers at the end of March 2025 (March 2024: c.1,100). We generated c.49,000 deals throughout the year, which was 3 times more than the previous year (2024: c.16,000). Given this progress, we have decided to make Deal Builder functionality part of our core advertising proposition. We believe this will accelerate retailer adoption, car buyer engagement and monetisation.
Automotive market overview
– We continue to see strong levels of demand for used cars, with a record number of cross-platform visits and minutes spent on Auto Trader. As we have moved through the year, supply has remained constrained for vehicles aged 3 to 5 years old. This combination of high demand and restricted supply in key age cohorts has led to cars selling at a faster rate than any time in our recent history.
– We have seen a 5% increase in the number of cars advertised through Auto Trader which is slightly higher than the increase in overall used car transactions. Fast speed of sale has meant retailers have benefitted from increased utilisation of Auto Trader’s slot-based advertising model. As a result, even though consumer and retailer activity have both increased, it has not directly benefited revenue. Used car pricing has been stable over the last 12 months, following declines in the previous financial year.
– The new car market has grown over the past 12 months, driven by the fleet channel. This took share from the retail channel which declined 4% year-on-year. This calendar year new car sales are up 3% and retail volumes were the fastest growing channel growing 6%.
– With the announcement of a UK/US trade deal and the Government’s plans to soften the Zero Emission Vehicle (‘ZEV’) mandate, we expect overall new car registration volumes to be well supported over the next two to three years.
Financial results
| £m (unless otherwise specified) | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
| Auto Trader1 | 564.8 | 529.7 | 7% |
| Autorama | 36.3 | 41.2 | (12%) |
| Group revenue | 601.1 | 570.9 | 5% |
| Auto Trader1 | 394.0 | 378.6 | 4% |
| Autorama | (4.3) | (8.8) | 51% |
| Group central costs2 – relating to Autorama acquisition | (12.9) | (21.1) | 39% |
| Group operating profit | 376.8 | 348.7 | 8% |
| Auto Trader operating profit margin | 70% | 71% | (1%) pt |
| Group operating profit margin | 63% | 61% | 2% pts |
| Basic earnings per share (pence) | 31.66 | 28.15 | 12% |
| Cash generated from operations3 | 399.7 | 379.0 | 5% |
| Adjusted EBITDA4 | 393.9 | 375.3 | 5% |
| Adjusted earnings per share (pence)5 | 31.66 | 29.37 | 8% |
– We have returned £275.7 million to shareholders (2024: £250.3 million) through £187.3 million of share buybacks and dividends of £88.4 million.
– Proposed final dividend of 7.1 pence per share (2024: 6.4 pence per share) giving total dividends of 10.6 pence per share for the year (2024: 9.6 pence per share).
Operational results
– Over 75% of all minutes spent on automotive marketplaces were spent on Auto Trader6 (2024: over 75%). Cross platform visits7,9 were up 5% to 81.6 million per month (2024: 77.5 million) and cross platform minutes7,9 increased 1% to 557 million per month (2024: 553 million).
– The average number of retailer forecourts7 in the period increased 2% to 14,013 (2024: 13,783).
– Average Revenue Per Retailer7 (‘ARPR’) per month was up 5% (or £133) to £2,854 on average (2024: £2,721), driven by a positive contribution from the price and product levers, with stock being negative.
– Live car stock7,11 was up 1% to 449,000 cars (2024: 445,000) on average, with this increase due to a higher volume of private listings. We delivered 6,268 new lease vehicles (2024: 7,847), which continues to be impacted by supply trends in the new car market.
– The average number of employees8 (‘FTEs’) in the Group increased to 1,267 during the period (2024: 1,233).
Cultural KPIs
– 91% of employees are proud to work at Auto Trader12 (March 2024: 97%).
– We continue to build a diverse and inclusive culture:
o Board13: We have more women than men on our Board (March 2024: five women and four men), two ethnically diverse Board members (March 2024: one) and a woman as Senior Independent Director.
o Leadership13,14,15,16: The percentage of women leaders within the organisation was 43% (March 2024: 42%) and those who are ethnically diverse was 10% (March 2024: 6%).
o Organisation13,15,16: The percentage of employees who are women was 44% (March 2024: 44%) and those who are ethnically diverse was 19% (March 2024: 17%).
– We aim to achieve net zero across our value chain before 2040 and to halve our carbon emissions by the end of 2030. Most of our CO2 emissions are Scope 3, attributable to our suppliers and the small number of vehicles sold by Autorama that pass through the balance sheet. Our calculations estimate total Group emissions (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) for the year to be c.93.2k tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (2024: 98.9k tonnes), a reduction of 6% year-on-year. Emissions relating to Auto Trader totalled 9.9k tonnes, with 83.3k tonnes relating to Autorama (2024: Auto Trader 14.2k and Autorama 84.7k).
Nathan Coe, Chief Executive Officer of Auto Trader Group, said:
“Despite broader macroeconomic uncertainties, the UK car market is in good health and we continue to deliver against our strategy to improve car buying and retailing.”
“A key highlight of the year was the launch of our suite of AI-powered products called Co-Driver, which is delivering one of the most significant improvements to our search experience and our retailer tools in years. The first wave of Co-Driver products has already successfully enhanced the quality of adverts, while reducing the amount of time it takes for retailers to advertise their vehicles. We see significant potential for the use of AI to improve the buying and selling of cars in the years ahead.”
“We remain confident in the outlook for the business given our strong market position, the value we deliver for customers, and our unique data and technology capabilities.”
2026 Outlook
Our April 2025 pricing and product event has gone well.
Retailer revenue growth in the second half of last year was 5% which was constrained by the acceleration in speed of sale. This has continued into the new financial year, however we expect retailer revenue growth to improve to between 5 and 7% for FY26 for the following reasons:
– Speed of sale has natural constraints. The acceleration seen last financial year was largely driven by a fall in used car prices which have steadily increased throughout the second half of the year as retailers have sought more normalised margins.
– Our pricing and product event has delivered approximately 6% growth in retailer revenue. Assuming consistent retailer forecourts, we expect this to grow the price lever within ARPR by £90-100 and contribute £70-80 to the product lever.
– We have responded to market dynamics with offers to stimulate stock and continue to support retailer margins with our prominence products. In H2 FY25, the stock lever was minus £54, in April 2025 it was minus £42. We expect stock to continue to improve through the year but still be marginally down for FY26. However, any marginal decline in the stock lever, should be offset by similar amounts in product lever contribution from additional prominence products.
– Due to the comparative periods, growth will be stronger in the second half which we expect will benefit the start of FY27.
We expect broadly consistent revenues in Consumer Services and Manufacturer & Agency, which account for 9% of Group revenue. Autorama losses are expected to reduce in line with current market expectations, with growth in commission & ancillary revenue on a relatively consistent cost base. Vehicle & accessory sales which has no impact on profit is likely to be c.£20m.
We expect to maintain current levels of Auto Trader operating profit margins, whilst Group operating profit margins will increase as a result of reduced Autorama losses.
Analyst presentation
A presentation for analysts will be held in person at the offices of Deutsche Numis and via audio webcast and conference call at 9.30am, Thursday 29 May 2025. Details below:
Audio webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/r6nnog5v
Conference call registration: https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BId67ed1aa2bdb408aaef8274a807fe4d6
