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| Eco City sales slip on taxi competition http://taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24038 |
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| Author: | captain cab [ Thu Mar 06, 2014 8:30 am ] |
| Post subject: | Eco City sales slip on taxi competition |
Eco City sales slip on taxi competition Just over a year ago, Eco City Vehicles was revving up to seize more of the capital’s taxi business as its rival Manganese Bronze went into administration – now it is the one feeling the heat from rivals as London prepares to go electric. Trevor Parker, Eco City chief executive, has stepped down, the supplier of the six-seater Mercedes-Benz Vito announced on Wednesday, as tougher competition led to a dip in sales. “Vehicle sales trading conditions have become challenging due to a combination of new entrants into the London taxi market and the recent Transport for London ambiguity regarding future changes to London emissions requirements in 2018,” Eco City said in its trading update. Shares on AIM dropped 12.9 per cent to £1.35p on Wednesday, valuing the group at just over £7.3m. Eco City’s sales of new Vito taxis slipped to 543 vehicles last year, 3.2 per cent lower than the previous year. Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, has made much of his goal of getting London’s taxis emission-free by 2018. However, Eco City currently has no electric model. Mr Parker said last month he did not think that London’s cabbies would switch to electric vehicles because the price tag was likely to be too high for them. Eco City is now searching for a replacement for Mr Parker, who it only appointed last April. Chinese carmaker BYD brought 20 electric vehicles to London last month and Nissan has said its new NV200 model will be on the streets by the end of the year, and will be followed by an electric version. Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturer Geely has revived the London Taxi Company after taking over Manganese Bronze and restarting production of the famous black cab, pictured, last year. It plans to have an electric model within the next five years. “There’s general uncertainty,” said a person close to Eco City. “It’s difficult to isolate what factor it is, whether it’s Nissan or the return to form of Geely and LTI; and there’s been a lot of noise from TfL on the emissions.” “People have possibly been delaying their spending decisions on taxis. Just like a car, if somebody’s been thinking of buying, if there’s a new model coming up, people might wait,” the person said. Eco City doubled its market share to 40 per cent and lifted revenues by more than a third after the misfortunes of its rival Manganese Bronze, and last April, when Mr Parker was appointed, said that the company would now shift up to the next level. “This quarter we are seeing a softening in sales of new Vito taxis and the board has taken a number of steps to address this,” John Swingewood, chairman, said in a statement. “The board and management team intend to achieve further diversification through acquisition,” he added. The company said among other initiatives it would grow its rental fleet, which is now about 45 vehicles. Eco City’s profit before tax was up to £0.25m, after a loss of £0.2m in 2012. Revenue for the year was up 5.2 per cent to £32m, the company said in a trading update covering its full year to the end of December. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/049a7dd4-a47b ... z2vAJqfoCt |
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