PEUGEOT has announced its best UK profits for seven years - up 72% - following record sales last year. The company made £52.5 million pre-tax profits on record turnover of £2.34 million (up 10%) in 1997. It was the highest profits since 1990 and a £22 million improvement on 1996. Profit after tax was £37.3 million, compared with £22 million in the previous year.

Managing director Richard Parham said the profits boost followed one of the most successful years in the history of the Coventry-based manufacturer. Last year the company sold a record 167,472 new cars in Britain - 14,000 more than in 1996 - of which a record 91,859 were bought by fleets and almost doubled its van sales to almost 5,000 units.

But Parham warned: 'We are still not earning a sufficient return for our shareholders and the market remains very competitive. We have made a good start to 1998 and we now enter an exciting period for Peugeot in the UK as we put the finishing touches to our largest yet investment programme - £100 million - which will see the introduction of a new car range (the replacement for the 205) at the Ryton plant in the late summer.'