This dealership, established almost seven decades ago by the late Sir Arnold Clark, now operates over 200 sites across the nation, with its base in Scotland.

The most recent filings illustrate that the company achieved record sales revenues last year, propelled by escalating car prices, even though the volumes of new and used cars were below pre-pandemic levels. Notably, the average price of second-hand cars sold by Arnold Clark surged by 48% last year, with new cars witnessing a 27% price hike compared to 2019.

The financial insights reveal a pre-tax profit of £173m in 2022 for Arnold Clark. Although this didn’t align with the £260m profits accumulated in the prior year, the dividends were amped up to a record £67m, elevating the total amount extracted by the family from the business to £118m over two years.

Historically, Arnold Clark disbursed single-digit or low double-digit millions in dividends before the pandemic. However, during the global health crisis, the company availed £64.3m in furlough payments from the treasury’s coronavirus job retention scheme, supporting 12,000 staff but opted not to reimburse the taxpayer, diverging from the prevalent norm in the UK retail sector, The Times reports.

Eddie Hawthorne, the chief executive, received remuneration amounting to £4.6m last year, bringing his five-year total to £23.5m.