Tax hikes in Rachel Reeves’ budget will add £30 million to car dealer Arnold Clark’s wage bill, it has revealed.

Arnold Clark turned in a strong performance in 2024 with pre-tax profits up 4.3% from £116 million to £120.7m on turnover up 3.8% from £4.9bn to £5.1bn.

A cyber attack and rising costs significantly cut its earnings in 2023. Off the back of its improved financial performance, the group increased its dividend from £15m to £21.9m.

However, in the last accounts signed of by former CEO Eddie Hawthorne before he retired he said the bottom line would be hit by the increase to employer NIC rates, the lowering of the NIC threshold, and significant increases to national minimum wage rates.

It has been estimated that the increase in NIC alone would hit the bottom line for dealers in the Top 200 dealer groups to the tune of £160m.

Russell Borrie stepped up from chief operating officer to become CEO.

During the year Arnold Clark expanded its dealership network in a £25m expansion programme with new dealerships in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Cramlington, Liverpool, Sunderland, Wallsend and Wirral.

It said: “We also embedded our new EV focused manufacturer partners BYD, Genesis, GWM Ora, Jaecoo and Omoda into our branch network structure. We now retail these brands through 10 of our locations and delivered 982 vehicles during the year.”