A SERIES of acquisitions and careful handling of plunging residual values has seen the Sytner Group record an increase in both turnover and pre-tax profit for its first year as a public company. Turnover has soared 35% to £294.5 million for the year end December 31, 1998, compared to £217.8 million for the same period in 1997, while pre-tax profits jumped 25% to £8.26 million from £6.6 million.

Frank Sytner, chairman of the group, said: 'In June, we acquired the Guy Salmon Group, which brought Jaguar, Honda and an additional Land Rover franchise to the group. We opened our second Mercedes-Benz outlet and our first Lotus and Rover/MG dealerships. We acquired our fifth BMW dealership in the strategically important City of London. This business has the potential to become the largest BMW dealership in the country.'

He said in order to move used car stock from dealerships the margins in many cases had to be cut.