KEY POINTS:
Turmoil in the car market is pushing some companies under but for auctioneer Turners Auctions it is an opportunity to expand, says chief executive Graham Roberts.
"A number of car companies have collapsed, we've done a couple of receiverships already this year."
The total used vehicle market declined by 9 per cent on the previous year, falling by 100,000 units, with a 25 per cent decline in Japanese used import vehicle sales in New Zealand labelled a primary cause.
"Quite frankly I feel fairly upbeat," Roberts said.
"I think that this is a time of opportunity for us and I'm confident that we'll grow our market share this year by offering these new services but also with the number of players pulling out of the market there's an opportunity for us to get in there and exploit our position."
Investments during the year had focused on online resources, including a new website, online marketing and an upgrade of online bidding application Turners Live.
Investment was also made in promoting the Turners brand to new types of customers, including advertising on television and buses.
Net profit for the year ended December 31 fell by more than half from $2.3 million the previous year to $1.1 million, although Turners said it was a satisfactory result given the market conditions. Operating revenue was down 8.8 per cent to $77.7 million.
"If you actually restate what our profit position is and you add back those investments year on year, our position is about the same," Roberts said.
Shares closed steady at 50c yesterday.
Turners sold about 70,000 vehicles last year, with 21 per cent sold online.
"All of our cars are now listed on Trade Me, we're in the top five motoring sites in the country," Roberts said.
A new buy-now option for cars was launched in September and Roberts expected the new option to be building towards 5 per cent of car sales by early next year.
Restructured business units, including branch consolidation and about 12 redundancies from a workforce of about 320, would provide an annualised cost saving of between $1.5 million and $2 million in the current year.
Turners had no debt and net cash inflows from operating activities increased to $9.4 million from $3.2 million in 2007.
Dividend payment for the year totalled 7.5c a share, equivalent to about $2 million.
