Profits have raced ahead at Platinum Retail as the forecourt operator continued to expand its estate.
The group is owned by Sej Sejpal, who set up Platinum in 2012 after selling Motor Fuel Group, which he co-founded in 2001, to a new management team.
Revenues in the year ended 30 April 2019 jumped 27% to £52.1m as the business added two new sites to the group, according to newly filed accounts at Companies House.
A fall in oil prices towards the end of 2018 and the expansion of the estate helped improve gross margins during the financial period from 5.6% to 6.4%. EBITDA rose 72% to £2.3m as a result, while operating profits were up from £940k in 2017/18 to £1.6m and pre-tax profits increased more than three-fold from £820k to £2.4m.
Platinum has grown rapidly since its formation in 2012, with sales racing from just £7.2m in 2014, which is the earliest figure available at Companies House. It acquired two new sites in 2018/19, as well as a further two after the year end, to take its portfolio to more than 25-strong, operating as Gulf, Shell and BP stations.
The business employs more than 60 members of staff.
“The year has seen another strong performance by the group as the market maintained a good level of margins again,” Sej Sejpal said in the accounts.
“This has been assisted by further investment by the company in refurbishing stores to stay in touch with current customer trends and preferences.
“Further, it has added some strong, known locations to its growing portfolio towards the latter part of the trading year and this should show further growth in profits.”
Sejpal added Platinum continued to seek further strategic locations and was (at the time of filing the accounts) in “advance negotiations” with several dealers.
“The director is confident in projecting a robust trading performance for the coming year and is also positive on the acquisition front,” he said.
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