HOUSTON -

Despite storms in the U.S. that threw a monkey wrench into its operations in early 2014, Group 1 Automotive still managed to increase its global used-car retail sales by nearly 16 percent in the first quarter and boost its U.S. numbers by nearly 8 percent.

When looking at consolidated international and U.S. results, Group 1 posted used retail revenue of $549.9 million, a 16.7-percent year-over-year increase. In the U.S., specifically, used retail revenue was up 7.7 percent at $450.5 million.

On a consolidated basis, Group 1 retailed 26,877 used cars throughout its U.S. and international operations during the first quarter, which marked a 15.7-percent year-over-year hike. It was pulling in gross profit per unit of $1,592 on these cars, which was 8.1 percent softer than a year ago.

In the U.S. alone, the retailer sold 22,743 used retail vehicles during the quarter, a 7.7-percent increase. Its gross profit per unit on these sales was $1,646, down 7.6 percent year-over-year.

In a conference call Thursday on the retailer’s Q1 performance, Group 1 president and chief executive officer Earl Hesterberg was asked by an analyst to discuss U.S. gross profit per unit trends.

“Used-vehicle margins, I don't think we did a particularly good job in the first quarter. But again, much of that came from the Eastern half of the country. After we had 45 days of dreadful sales, we started to really move out a lot of our used-vehicle inventory,” Hesterberg said, according to a transcript of the call from SeekingAlpha.com.

“We keep a 30-day supply and we had a lot of aging vehicles. So, I think we retailed some at margins that we wouldn’t normally. And we also wholesaled more than we normally would. And to give you some flavor for the pressure we felt in the East Coast in the first quarter, we had a decent same-store new-vehicle sales increase in the first quarter, but the Eastern half of the U.S., even after a great March, was still down double digits in same-store new-vehicle sales,” he continued.

“And in New York and New Jersey, we were down for the quarter 25 percent. That was after a good March. So, when your activity backs up like that, it really damages your business, which is what we were concerned about when we made our announcement in mid-February,” Hesterberg added.

The announcement to which he was referring was sent out on Feb. 18 and indicated that the widespread severe weather throughout the U.S. this winter had led to “significant business interruptions” at most of the retailer’s U.S. stores that ranged from one to three days.

At that time, Group 1 said 105 of its 118 stores here had been affected by conditions that made it hazardous to drive or shut roads down altogether, leading to either store closures or major declines in store traffic. The company said this meant losing 391 store selling days — or about 9 percent of total available selling days — through Feb. 16 

“While we lose selling days every winter, the severity and extremely widespread nature of the storms this year is far beyond our normal experience,” Hesterberg said in the February statement.

“We have lost days in areas of the country that stretch from Houston to New Orleans to Atlanta that are normally safe from winter weather and our stores in areas like Boston, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Kansas have seen significant closures that far exceed normal winter conditions,” he added.

In the conference call on Thursday, Hesterberg noted that its stores in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Maryland took the biggest hits. However, he pointed out that South Carolina, Georgia and North Texas has several store closures, “which is very unusual.”