In 2021, the AutoWallis Group enjoyed the best sales figures in its history, which are in line with the plans published prior to the public offering held last autumn. The Group, listed in the Premium category of the Budapest Stock Exchange, is continuing on the path to realising its strategic objective: to become a major vehicle trading company and mobility service provider in the Central and Eastern European region by the end of the decade. In addition to organic growth, the Group’s performance is also driven by the acquisitions completed in 2020. The exceptional results were attained despite the fact that a part of last year had still suffered from the disadvantageous effects of the restrictions put in place to counter the pandemic, followed by the chip shortage affecting automotive industry manufacturing that grew increasingly worse in the second half of the year. The temporary, or even longer term, difficulties in chip supply may have a negative impact on the supply sales figures expected for the coming period, though the increase in the number of vehicle orders gives hope regarding demand. Nevertheless, the temporary bottlenecks in supply caused by the chip shortage provided an opportunity to increase margins, allowing AutoWallis to further improve its ability to generate margins and profits.

The number of vehicles sold by the AutoWallis Group, present in 14 countries in the region, tripled to 25,034 (+199%). Of the Company’s two units, sales volumes in the Distribution Business Unit were explosive, counting more than four times as many (+315%) new vehicles for a total of 16,501 units, primarily thanks to the increased figures of the Opel and SsangYong brands. The Retail & Services Business Unit saw the sale of 6,920 new and 1,613 used vehicles, equal to growths of 116% and 34%, respectively (in comparison, the Hungarian passenger vehicle market decreased experienced a drop of 3.4 percent*). The Retail & Services Business Unit experienced significant expansion in services: Sixt, represented by the AutoWallis Group, increased the number of rental days to more than one and a half times (+62%) the previous year’s value. The figure of 164,132 days exceeds even pre-epidemic 2019 figures (139,437), with the effectiveness of the unit also showing an increase, as it managed to attain this figure with a fleet of 603 vehicles, the growth of which (+42%) is less than the increase in rental days. Within services, the number of service hours also showed a sharp rise, almost doubling (+98%) to 130,375.

* Market data by DataHouse.