Turners on move from Penrose

Car sales group Turners will leave its Penrose “supersite” at the end of this year as it moves away from its traditional wholesale auction business.

The listed company has leased the 4-hectare site from landlord Goodman for the past 20 years but will move its retail and auction businesses to two new Auckland sites in Westgate and Mt Richmond in December.

The company declared a final dividend of 6 cents on the strength of an 11 per cent improvement in underlying net profit before tax of $28.8 million for the year, driven largely by solid performances in its finance and credit management businesses.

The lending business reported a 10 per cent increase to $12.2m, from revenue of $45.7m for the year, reflecting an “increasing focus on lending to higher quality borrowers,” said chief executive Todd Hunter.

The credit management business reported a 3 per cent increase in operating profits to $6.5m, with debt collections up 14 per cent for the year.

Auto retail reported operating profit of $13.8m, a year-onyear drop of 24 per cent from $18.3m due to softer consumer trading conditions and the Covid-19 lockdown. Average gross profits per unit were up 12 per cent to $529, however.

Hunter said the company was expecting to pick up more market share as the industry consolidated, as it had after the Global Financial Crisis, when dealer numbers fell by about 15 per cent.

The company’s car subscription service, which it expected to get up and running this month, has been delayed by the impacts of Covid-19, the company said.

Hunter said Turners was now working directly with Collaborate Corp in Australia to get the subscription platform set up for New Zealand.

After being hit hard during April, Hunter said the recovery had happened faster than expected.

“In April three out of four businesses were profitable and in May all four businesses were profitable.”