Automotive

Now more than ever, dealerships need advisers with a dedicated knowledge of the industry, who can rapidly understand the issues and provide constructive recommendations to make a real difference to profitability.

We advise on all aspects of running a business in the automotive sector and have helped many clients to make long term and positive changes in their businesses. In addition to providing traditional dealer accounting, audit and tax services, our automotive experience also covers industry-specific financial and operational consultancy projects across the UK and Europe on behalf of institutional lenders and OEMs.

Our national offering is led by a team of automotive specialists who are totally dedicated to the sector and have considerable experience in the motor industry. We combine a local responsive service with deep and wide ranging automotive skills and experience.

With a client base that ranges from the supply chain to large franchise dealership groups, our experience includes dealing with automotive clients from a local and regional perspective, to working with a significant number of the top 100 franchised dealer groups in the UK.
 

Automotive front cover
10th Mar 2023
2023 Automotive Sector Outlook

Predictions for the year ahead from our specialist automotive team

Automotive brochure front cover
8th Jun 2023
About UHY automotive

We provide expert advice to dealers from audit and taxation to mergers and acquisitions and operational issues such as customer management.

Automotive tax brochure font cover
22nd Nov 2023
Automotive tax planning and compliance

A summary of automotive tax planning and compliance-based frequently asked questions from our clients.

Specialist dealer accounting services

We currently support more than 60 dealer groups across the UK automotive sector, providing external audit and accountancy services to many of these clients. 

Our automotive accounting services include:

  • cashflow modelling and business planning
  • independent business reviews
  • FCA regulation support
  • insolvency and restructuring
  • forensic and fraud investigations.

It is our considerable sector expertise, combined with our tailored approach, that will be of genuine benefit.

Transaction support and strategic advice

If your future plans include buying or selling a business, or raising equity or debt finance to facilitate growth, you will need specialist corporate finance support. Our automotive team includes corporate finance specialists who have advised on over 150 transactions in the sector and who have considerable experience bringing parties together and helping facilitate deals. We will help you to maximise the value of your business by working closely with the manufacturer, as a key stakeholder, to select the right partner.

Our automotive corporate finance services include: 

  • M&A and transaction support
  • strategic advice
  • valuations
  • confidential targeting exercises
  • funding advice
  • new market entry assignments
  • sponsored dealer programmes.
Dealer tax health checks and specialist tax services

Our health checks focus on VAT and PAYE, the main areas of taxation HMRC have focused on in the automotive industry. We have been involved in numerous complex HMRC enquiries in the sector over the years, and from this experience we have developed an efficient one day ‘desk-top’ style due diligence exercise which helps clients understand their risk in these areas, and make recommendations to improve compliance.  

Our specialist tax services include:

  • tax health checks, commonly VAT and PAYE
  • capital allowance reviews
  • group simplification and restructuring
  • remuneration planning and employee share schemes
  • exit planning and shareholder reorganisations.
Operational support for dealers

Dealers are faced with a daily pressure to improve profitability and increase margins. We work in teams combining financial expertise and operational experience to provide valuable insights into the day-to-day practices of your business, resulting in practical solutions that will enable you to implement long terms changes to help you improve operational efficiency and optimise profit.

Our operational services include:

  • customer service
  • enquiry management
  • best practice and controls reviews
  • sales performance and profitability
  • 48 hour business healthchecks.

The next step

We believe our role as a key adviser to the sector is not just to help you with your day-to-day accounting and business issues, but help you anticipate and overcome the inevitable challenges that the sector will continue to face moving forwards.

If you would like to discuss the motor accounting and support services that we can provide for your business, please contact one of our automotive partners, or complete the form below.

Let's talk! Send an enquiry to your local UHY expert.

Insights

What our clients say

“We chose UHY Hacker Young to manage our sale and the transaction was expertly handled from start to finish. David Kendrick, Paul Daly and the team at UHY gave us a fantastic level of support throughout, and their detailed knowledge of the automotive sector and experience from dozens of previous sales was invaluable at every stage of the deal.”

Trevor Reeve, Chairman, Pentagon Motor Holdings Limited

"I have been attending audit close out meetings for over 15 years and I found my first one with UHY to be the most productive and informative"

 

Ben Collins, Chairman, Stephen James Group

“We selected UHY Hacker Young as our professional advisers for the sale of Beadles Group due to their strong reputation and specialist automotive expertise. They produced a high quality document and negotiated a very good deal for the sale of the business with Group 1 which completed in a very smooth manner. I would have no hesitation in recommending their services.”

 

Tim Humphries, Financial Director, Beadles Group Limited