FLEET sales at dealer group Dixon dropped by nearly 20% last year as the firm shunned low margin business.

It also avoided buy-back repurchase commitments, which would have left the company exposed to residual value falls. The policy led to an improvement in gross profits, which increased 2% during the year to December 31, 2001 to £4.1 million, despite fleet sales dropping from 12,456 to 10,035 year-on-year. Overall pre-tax profits at the firm rose £54.9% to £12.06 million, while turnover increased by 16.4% to £817 million.

Total car sales jumped by 11.8% to 71,548 units, and the firm's online car sales division, jamjar.com, secured 5,851 sales last year, compared to 1,133 in 2001.