Plymouth car dealership Vospers made a £500,000 loss last year as it faced a difficult market and stopped selling several well-known brands. The family-owned business, which has its flagship base at Marsh Mills, also began dealing in a number of Chinese brands and said it has returned to profitability so far in 2026.
Turnover rose to £303.5m, up from £268.9m in 2024, but the company, which employs 600 people across 18 sites in the South West, made a pre-tax loss of £500,000 compared with a £1m profit the year before. Net assets increased by £300,000 to £44.5m.
Writing in Vospers of Plymouth Ltd's newly published annual report for 2025, director Peter Vosper said: "The group has had another challenging year with a difficult new vehicle market and ongoing inflationary cost pressures."
He said the private retail new car market was 2.02 million cars, up 3.4% on 2024, but added: "Due to challenging profitability and changing consumer requirements we had a strategic review of our brand portfolio. As a result we made the difficult decision to terminate a number of the Stellantis brands."
That meant Vospers stopped selling Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Abarth, Jeep, Seat, Cupra and Mazda. It has retained some aftersales agreements to support customers. Mr Vosper said: "We have incurred some one-off cost and trading losses in these brands as part of our reorganisation."
He added: "Positively there has been a significant growth of the Chinese brands that now reflect one in 10 car sales. As part of our strategic business plan we have developed a relationship with Omoda and Jaecoo in Exeter, Plymouth and Cornwall, which has assisted with some of the strategic changes that we have made to our brand portfolio."
Last year Vospers bought County Garage in Barnstaple, giving the group a strategic location in North Devon with a well established team and "shared family values". Following the acquisition it was appointed as Ford Car and Commercial dealer and as the MG dealer for the area.
"We have invested heavily in the site including creating a new commercial service workshop," Mr Vosper said. "The dealership now represents Ford Car and Commercial, Vauxhall, MG, Land Rover Authorised Repairer and Peugeot Authorised Repairer."
He added: "As part of the Barnstaple acquisition we have also expanded our representation footprint with Ford Car and Commercial to now cover the whole of Devon and Cornwall. We have also expanded our relationship with MG in 2026 and now have representation in Plymouth, Exeter and Barnstaple."
In the report Mr Vosper said adoption of electric vehicles improved year-on-year, though it failed to meet the Government's ZEV (zero emission vehicle) mandate target, "signalling the ongoing challenges for retail consumers to move from internal combustion engines completely".
He said: "Plug-in hybrid is in greater demand and we would urge the government to consider all technologies in their fiscal policies to ensure increased uptake of these green vehicles. There are ongoing challenges in terms of charging infrastructure particularly in the more regional areas such as the South West where more needs to be done on off street charging and fast charging hubs. We need a cross-party approach to providing low cost charging solutions for those that do not have a home charger, solar or battery storage and we would welcome a reduction to the VAT rate on public charging."
Mr Vosper said the sale of used vehicles performed similarly to the previous year, but added: "Purchasing good quality stock remains a challenge for a number of motor traders and we expect to improve our profitability in 2026."
Vospers Posts £500k Loss but Sees Profit Return in 2026