Encouraging results for motor finance and specialist lender, which "wrestles on"

S&U plc, the Solihull-based motor finance and specialist lender, has seen revenues increase by 12 per cent to £115.4 million to the end of January, but profits are down from £41.4 million to £33.6 million.

Revenues at its Advantage Motor Finance increased by nine per cent to £98.2 million, but at Aspen Bridging, which provides bridging, light development and bridge-to-let loans of up to £10 million, revenues increased by 34 per cent to £17.3 million, with profits before tax of £4.8 million, up slightly on the previous year.

Anthony Coombs, Chairman of S&U plc, said: "Enthusiastic and supportive customers underpin S&U's long success and guarantee its future. Current trends, both at Advantage and Aspen, prove that S&U has an abundance of these and trading since our year-end is encouraging. Of course, challenges remain. As Marcus Aurelius, a second century Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher once said, "sometimes the art of living is more like wrestling than dancing". Confident in our people, business philosophy and the markets we serve so well, we wrestle on."

S&U Stores plc was founded in Birmingham in 1938 by Clifford Coombs. It sold household items and its first premises opened in July 1938 in Corporation Street. In 1947 it opened a branch in Shrewsbury and four years late it had opened a furniture store in Birmingham. On May 16th 1958 it opened a new store in Edgbaston Street, costing more than a quarter of a million pounds - 118 feet tall with an 82 feet frontage. the following year it held its first Autumn Fashion Parade was held in the Edgbaston Street store restaurant.

The company floated on the Stock Exchange in 1961 and a few years later bought the well-known Swallow Raincoat brand. By 1975 S&U plc moves away from stores and manufacturing to concentrate on home credit loans. In. 1999 the company founded Advantage Finance, now one of the UK's leading providers of specialist motor finance, and in 2017, it launched Aspen Bridging.