Raising the bar
Wilson Parking boosts profit 22 per cent to $12.3m amid a booming Kiwi car market
Wilson Parking New Zealand, the local unit of a business ultimately controlled by Hong Kong’s Kwok family, posted a 22 per cent gain in full-year profit as sales at its parking and security units rise amid a booming car market.
Profit was $12.3 million in the year ended June 30, from $10.1m a year earlier, according to the Aucklandbased company’s annual report. Sales rose to $167.7m from $150m, with about two-thirds of revenue coming from parking.
The New Zealand business is made up of Wilson Parking, New Zealand’s biggest parking company, and First Security, acquired in 2014. Both have been on an expansion path in recent years.
The new vehicle market delivered another record month during October. New vehicle registrations totalled 15,530 — up 5.6 per cent on October last year. It was the strongest October month on record and the second-largest total of any month. Year-to-date registrations were running 9.83 per cent (11,986 units) ahead of last year.
Wilson Parking has bought out rivals including Tournament Parking, while First Security added Arrow Security Protection and Total Security Management.
Sales of parking services rose 10.5 per cent to $108m in the latest year, while security guard services revenue rose 8.8 per cent to $72.6m, offset by $20m of remittances to third-party carpark owners.
Its biggest cost increase was a 15 per cent gain to $52.5m in leasing costs paid to owners of its carpark properties, which a company spokeswoman said was a combination of an increase to existing property owners and the addition of new properties.
Employee costs rose 8.2 per cent to $61.7m. Across the two businesses, Wilson Parking employs more than 2000 people.
Wilson Parking chief executive Stephan Wuffli said uptake of its ParkMate app had contributed to sales growth.
“Parking has experienced strong year-on-year volume growth attributable to demand for the new ParkMate app payment platform,” he said. “The app has reduced a lot of the pain points associated with pay and display parking operations.”
The app finds a customer’s GPS location and displays the nearest carpark which can then be topped up remotely through a smartphone. It is a free download on iTunes and Google Play.
First Security is owned via the Wilson Security business, which operates in Australia and New Zealand.
Alex Park, First Security chief executive, said the business “has seen a strong year across all segments of business nationally”.
The acquisition and integration of Arrow “have gone to plan and budget. This, along with reinvestment in our operational fleet, has seen extensions of our longerterm contracts,” he said.
Notes to the 2017 accounts show Wilson Parking NZ had lease commitments of $338.5m at June 30, down from $342m a year earlier. The company had total non-current borrowings of $75.2m, up from $66.5m.