Chinn to split top jobs as Lex surges

Sir Trevor Chinn, who has run Britain's largest car dealer, Lex Service, for more than 20 years, is to split the roles of chairman and chief executive. Andrew Harrison, 39, a director at Courtaulds Textiles, will join as chief executive on 2 September while Sir Trevor will remain chairman.

The announcement accompanied an upbeat set of results which included a 26 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to pounds 27.7m for the six months to June with strong retail car operations overcoming a fall in demand for commercial vehicles. The figures were well ahead of City expectations, pushing Lex shares 15p higher at 363p.

With the new 'P' registration cars available from next month, Lex said forward orders for new models were up on last year. It added that the UK car market for August could be up by about 5 per cent on the same month last year. This implies sales of 490,000 vehicles against 469,000 last year. In the six months to June, car dealerships performed well with retail profits 17 per cent higher.

This was achieved with 69 dealerships compared with 90 at the beginning of the year. A further six will be closed or sold. Lex took a pounds 10m provision in last year's accounts to cover the cost of the re-structuring.

Lex's truck operations had a tougher time with profits down by pounds 2.5m. The division was affected by a 7 per cent fall in the national market.

David Leibling, corporate communications director, said: "There is a glimmer of hope that this market will begin to pick up in the second half boosted by an export-led recovery. However, it will take some time for any real recovery to filter through to profits."

Sir Trevor said the first-half figures showed the benefits of the 1995 re-structuring. Sales rose by 5 per cent to pounds 812m. The interim dividend was increased from 5.9p to 6.4p.