Pendragon PLC (LON:PDG) have announced that they have appointed a new chief executive officer on Wednesday afternoon.
The motor retailer said that Bill Berman would be taking up the chief executive officer role, which would take place with immediate effect.
Berman is currently interim executive chair of Pendragon, and has held his role since October 2019.
He joined the firm as a non-executive director in April lsat year, and has a variety of experiences in the industry and wider business,
Pendragon said: “Prior to joining Pendragon, Bill served as President and Chief Operating Officer of AutoNation, the largest automotive retailer in America, where he was responsible for AutoNation’s 26,000 associates and the operational performance of the company’s 300+ new vehicle franchises, including new and used vehicle sales and aftersales. He has over 30 years’ experience in automotive retail.”
Bill Berman, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “In my relatively short time with the business, it is already clear to me that Pendragon is a company with great potential and a talented team. As Chief Executive Officer, I look forward to building on strong relationships with our team members, customers, suppliers, our OEM partners and investors as we move forward together in a period of rapid change and innovation in the automotive retail sector.”
Pendragon change their senior management board
In December, Pendragon announced that they had appointed a new Non Executive Director.
The firm has announced the appointment of Brian Small to their senior board with immediate effect.
Small will serve on the board’s nomination committee, the remuneration committee, and will take over as audit committee chair from Richard Laxer from January 2 next year.
Need for change at Pendragon?
The car retailer has seen a mixed few months of trading, and the question rises as to whether this change was enforced.
The firm saw a decline in total revenues by 8%, as like for like revenue dropped 3.6% and used car revenues dropped 19.6% in October.
Total revenue from new car sales was strong however, and this climbed 4.5%. Additionally, new car like for like sales increased by 11%.
Pendragon said overall sales volumes were lower as it focussed on rebuilding both the quantity and quality of the age-profile of the stock during the period.
Pendragon held £458m worth of used car stock at the end of 2018, compared to £372m a year ago.
A couple of new changes at Pendragon should allow the firm to fully assess their future strategy – whilst looking to suffice shareholders.
The new board should give Pendragon a sense of optimism going forward, and shareholders will be keen to see what the firm can do over the next few months of trading.
Shares in Pendragon trade at 12p (-0.64%). 19/2/20 12:43BST.
