Europcar: Airport passengers help UK sales pass milestone

An increase in people hiring cars at airports helped revenue at the UK arm of Europcar surpass £400m during its latest financial year.

The Leicester-headquartered division has reported a revenue of £403.8m for 2023, up from the £363.5m it posted for 2022.

Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also show that its pre-tax profit jumped from £29.2m to £49.1 in the year.

Europcar said its results were boosted by a “buoyant vehicle remarketing environment” and keeping its costs “generally well controlled despite strong economic pressures from high inflation and increased interest rates”.

It added that leisure business demand continued to improve and further move towards pre-Covid levels supported by increases in airport passenger numbers.

Business to business demand stabilised, the company also said, as supply constraints of new vehicles into leasing businesses eased.

Europcar to buy more electric and hybrid vehicles

On its current financial year, Europcar said: ” In 2024, the expectation is that the macro and micro economic environment will continue to normalise with a return to stable interest rates and inflation reducing towards the Bank of England’s target of two per cent.

“An improvement in the availability of new vehicles is expected in 2024 which will allow the further refreshing of the existing fleet.

“The company aims to optimise the average age of its fleet, reducing servicing and maintenance costs and further improving fleet utilisation.

“Fleet mix will also be optimised with the acquisition of additional electric and hybrid vehicles, contributing towards the company in achieving its sustainability targets.”

During the year the average number of people employed by Europcar increased from 1,557 to 1,615.

The wider Europa group, which is headquartered in France, reported sales of €3.09bn for 2023, up from €3.08bn.

However, it made a net loss of €139.1m compared to a profit of €55.4m in the year before.