Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ARB Corporation 2023 half year financial results presentation. My name is Lachlan McCann, Chief Executive Officer at ARB, joining me to present today is Damon Page, ARB's Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. Today, Damon and I will take you through a financial update on the half year results, I'll present an update on the business' sales and operations. During the presentation, questions can be made through the chat box. At the top right-hand corner of your screen, you will see a blue circle with a hand icon. By clicking this, it will open a chat box for you to enter your questions. At the conclusion of the presentation, Damon and I will answer these questions. I'll now hand over to Damon to take you through the financial results.
Thanks, Lachlan. I express a warm welcome to all participants on this morning's call. It's great to have you join us. It is my pleasure to present the results for the financial half year ended 31 December 2022. Slide three outlines the company's sales revenue and profit before tax and after tax. Both the sales and the profit results are in line with the company's announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange earlier this month, released on 6 February 2023. To the left-hand side there, the company achieved sales revenue of AUD 340.9 million, a decrease of 5.1% compared with last year. Noting, however, that December 2021's sales revenue was 26.5% higher than 2020.
Sales improved in the second quarter and were in line with last year's second quarter after a 10% decline in sales was reported for the first quarter at the company's annual general meeting, held a few months ago in October. Profit before tax of AUD 64.6 million, however declined 29.7% compared with the prior corresponding half. The misalignment with the smaller 5.1% decrease in sales revenues is attributable to lower gross profits resulting from the lower sales level achieved falling straight through to the bottom line. The inflationary pressure on the cost of products sold, along with the inflationary pressure on the company's operational cost infrastructure, a significant portion of which is fixed. Profit before tax represents 19% of sales revenue.
The company's implemented a series of small sales price increases over the last 12 months, the effect of which lagged the immediate inflation impact on products sold in the operational cost base, particularly given the healthy backlog of open customer orders. Profit after tax of AUD 47.4 million was 31.2% lower than last year and a little behind the profit before tax result due to a higher effective tax rate with higher taxes being paid in the higher taxing jurisdictions. In terms of sales by channel on Slide four, the Australian aftermarket achieved growth of 2.7% over the corresponding half year, despite ongoing challenges with the fitment of accessories to vehicles with a very tight labor market and fitters difficult to recruit. Workshop fitting schedules have also been disrupted with delays in the arrival of motor vehicles to customers.
In the middle of the slide there, export sales declined 8.8% during the half and have reduced to representing 36.9% of the company's total sales. This decline follows sustained high growth. For example, the last two financial half years being December 2021 and December 2020, export achieved growth of 39.9% and 36.7% respectively. We see many companies across all industries holding historically high inventory levels to mitigate against supply chain disruptions during COVID. ARB's export sales were impacted during this half by wholesale customers selling through their higher inventory holdings. In particular, however, the U.S. distribution channel has been challenging, and Lachlan will talk to the U.S. results and strategies later in this presentation.
The decline in sales to original equipment manufacturer customers of 36.9% was previously flagged to the market. The decrease is due to initial order quantities purchased by the OEMs to stock up for new models last year. We expect sales to OEMs in the second half of this financial year to be in line with the second half of last year. On Slide five, the board has declared an interim fully franked dividend of AUD 0.32 per share, which represents a dividend payout ratio of 55%. This compares with last year's interim dividend of AUD 0.39 per share, a reduction of 18%. The dividend reinvestment plan and bonus share plan will both be in operation for this dividend and will be paid on 21st of April, 2023. Slide six outlines the company's profit and loss statement.
It also highlights sales revenue down 5.1% and profit before tax down 29.7%, as discussed on the earlier slide. Items to call out specifically include the two line items highlighted in blue relating to the Truckman acquisition. Firstly, a reversal of deferred consideration for Truckman of AUD 13.7 million has been recognized as other revenue. Two, an impairment loss on Truckman goodwill of AUD 13.4 million has been recognized there on the third final row of the table. These two items will be discussed in greater detail on the following slide.
Of particular note, and the key driver of the result for the half is the reduction in gross margin reflected in the materials and consumables used line, i.e., the 4th line in the table, which has increased from 42% of sales last year to 47% of sales this year. This reduction in gross margin reflects the inflationary pressures on the company's cost of products sold and operational cost base, a significant component of course, which is fixed. We note that inflationary pressure has very recently moderated on some key costs, including freight and steel, which will be reflected in margins after the company works through the currently higher costed inventories on hand. As mentioned earlier, we've implemented a series of smaller sales price increases over the last 12 months, which are lagging the immediate cost of inflation experienced as described earlier.
We note on this particular slide that employee expenses grew by only 1.1%, i.e., less than current inflation levels, as the company tightly manages its headcount and wage increases. Advertising and other expenses have increased as the company pursues sales growth both domestically and internationally. Slide seven provides further background to the acquisition adjustments briefly touched on in the previous slide. Truckman is a long-established canopy business based in the United Kingdom, which was acquired by ARB back in March 2021 during the COVID pandemic. To protect ARB from short to medium-term trading uncertainty, ARB structured the acquisition consideration around the prospective performance of the Truckman business over the three years following completion. The deal allowed for an adjustment to the purchase price to the extent of ±25% from the historical sustainable trading levels.
Whilst trading levels were maintained in the months following acquisition, the U.K. has experienced a 30% decline in new vehicle supply, reflected in registration numbers of Truckman's target vehicles over the last 12 months, which has materially affected the performance of Truckman. Accordingly, the full amount of the deferred and contingent consideration of AUD 13.7 million has been written back to profit as other revenue, as the board believes it is unlikely this amount will be paid to the vendors. An offsetting impairment of goodwill charge of AUD 13.4 million has been charged as an expense. We note that these two adjustments were both non-cash items and Truckman remains profitable and cash flow positive.
We are pleased that the original owners of the business continue to manage the business, assisted by a key expatriate ARB manager who is assisting with the integration of ARB products into the Truckman lineup. Slide eight outlines the company's cash flows during the year. The blue circle to the right of the slide highlights that the company had AUD 29.8 million in cash and no debt at the December balance date. This is a reduction of AUD 22.9 million from June 2022, a function of cash flows generated from operations offset by the investments highlighted in red being an increase to inventories of AUD 19.2 million. Payments for property, plant, and equipment of AUD 17.9 million, and the payment of the financial year 2022 final dividend paid during the half of AUD 23 million.
Key factors contributing to the increase in inventories were, one, forward purchasing of raw materials to shore up production in an environment where supply chains were disrupted and costs were escalating. Two, raw materials and work in progress of new products to be introduced later this year. Three, the inflationary impact on materials and finished goods held at the end of the half. We're currently reviewing our inventory levels with supply chains now normalizing. I'd like to hand over now to Lachlan.
Thank you very much, Damon. We'll move now to Slide 10 and go through a snapshot of the domestic new vehicle sales in the half with a focus on vehicles most relevant to ARB's business. New vehicle supply continues to lag demand across all vehicle manufacturers. Total new vehicle sales in Australia in the first half of the financial year were up 12.7%. As a subset of this, and ARB's core business being 4x4 pickup vehicles and large SUVs, we see 4x4 pickup vehicles and large SUVs in the reporting period increase 11.6% and 6.8% respectively, both below total new vehicle sales. While upper large SUVs, such as the new Land Cruiser 300 Series, increased by 22.8%.
Key vehicle platforms to ARB, including the Ford Ranger, the Toyota Hilux, and the Land Cruiser 300 Series performed well. There are a couple of underperforming vehicles such as the Toyota Prado and Land Cruiser 70 Series that had a weaker six months. Now to Slide 11 and the report on the Australian aftermarket. ARB's core store network now comprises of 74 stores nationally, 30 are company-owned and 44 are ARB branded stores which are privately owned. In the first half of the financial year, the domestic aftermarket grew by 2.7% to AUD 196 million, representing 57.4% of total sales. A strong result that reflects a sustained high revenue position post-COVID. The committed customer order book remains unchanged from the beginning of the reporting period, reflecting continued healthy order intake.
A combination of new vehicle availability and workshop fitting capacity is moderating further revenue growth. Demand for mechanics and workshop technicians across Australia remains a challenge. Most recent data nationally informs that there were 99,000 employed workers in this area for 111,000 available jobs. ARB continues to execute a number of HR strategies to improve our fitting capacity. We continue to invest nationally in both the quantity and quality of our retail sites. Corporately, ARB has acquired sites in Mornington, Victoria, which is an all-new site. In addition, we have new developments underway in Albury, New South Wales, Bundaberg, Queensland, Launceston, Tasmania, and Osborne Park, Western Australia. These are all new sites relocating from existing ARB retail stores.
There are also a number of health t here are also a healthy number of sites in various stages of planning through ARB's independent network, which will come to market in the coming years. Today, we'd like to share with investors the investment and passion behind ARB's independent store network, shown proudly through this video with the launch of ARB Coopers Plains, presented by the owner and long-term ARB business partner, Mr. Mark Lacey. I'll play the video.
Hey, guys. Mark Lacey here from ARB Coopers Plains. Well, as you know, we've been renovating over the last three months, and we're pretty excited to say that through thick and thin, we pulled it off. Here we are with a brand new ARB flagship store right here in Coopers Plains. The shelves are packed full of goodies for your four by four and your next big adventure. The team and I are really excited, really passionate about this store. We would love to see you walk through that door. Whether you're a seasoned off-roader or you're just starting out, you may or may not know of ARB Coopers Plains. Well, we're standing here at the moment on our trip track, or you may know us by our boab trees or big bottle trees out in the front.
Either way, if you're driving down Boundary Road now or Beaudesert Road, and you don't see that, you shouldn't be driving a four-wheel drive. I challenge you to come on in, we've got plenty of parking. Have a good look around. We'll love to see you in store.
Mark's been with the business for over 20 years, and it's just great to see his passion for the brand continuing and his investment in ARB Coopers Plains. We'd now like to move across to Slide 13 and an update on the export result. In the reporting period, ARB's export sales declined by 8.8% to AUD 126 million, representing 36.9% of ARB's total business. This follows 50.2% growth in the 2021 financial year and 17.4% in the 2022 financial year. Pleasingly, ARB experienced moderate growth of 1.6% in the markets grouped as Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, which is especially pleasing given we've ceased all sales to Russia.
The sales result of the European business was a real highlight within a challenging market. One provides us confidence that our U.K. investments are bright for the future with ARB products. Asia, New Zealand, the Pacific region sales declined by 8.7%, largely due to reduction in sales to China. Sales to the U.S.A., Latin America, and Canada declined by 15.7%. I'll be providing further commentary on the U.S. result later in the presentation. Moving across now to Slide 14 and an OE update. The year-on-year success of ARB's OE business is very dependent on the timing of new model launches and vehicle availability. ARB provided guidance to the market of a forecast decline in our OEM business, which has materialized in a 36.9% reduction in OEM revenue to the half.
Key considerations in this result include forecasting inventory requirements via the OEMs has been troublesome given the fluctuating vehicle availability. This has caused both overstocks and understocks in their warehouses. We anticipate the year-on-year result for the second half to be consistent with the previous corresponding period. Beyond the current financial year, we do forecast sales growth for the OEM business unit relating to improving vehicle supply and materializing of new contracts. Globally, ARB has won several new long-term OEM business contracts that are currently in the design phase. Pleasingly, some products within these overseas contracts will carry the ARB brand. There'll be more news to come on these contracts within this financial year. Just as a reminder that sales through Ford under the Licensed Accessory Program are considered aftermarket, not OEM sales. On to product development.
ARB continues to lead the 4x4 aftermarket with innovation and technology in our key product categories. A great example of this is the recent launch of the Intensity IQ driving light, which our marketing team has done a magnificent job in presenting to market. We'll now show you a quick video referencing this. For those that are interested, get into an ARB store and have a look at the new Intensity IQ driving lights. A fantastic product. Look, the ARB engineering pipeline remains full with a number of key new product releases due to come within this calendar year, 2023. Now to Slide 16 and the U.S. update. Despite the result, we remain confident in the long-term outlook for our U.S. business. Unlike Australia, ARB relies on wholesale distribution partners in the U.S.
There is no predominant national retailer in the four by four aftermarket. In recent times, there have been a number of acquisitions and subsequent business restructuring that has caused a decline to ARB's business from key U.S. resellers that has impacted our result. ARB holds strongly that the demand for our products and brand exceeds our current sales levels. To address this, we have a number of key initiatives underway to support ARB's brand and distribution vision for the U.S. market. Within the calendar year, ARB will launch a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site in the U.S. The site will complement our brick-and-mortar distribution partners while optimizing our brand image, product presentation, and online consumer purchasing experience. As previously reported, our third distribution center in Dallas, Texas, is being commissioned and will enhance delivery service to Texas, Central U.S.A. and Central America.
Under Toyota's AAP program, ARB products are now available online at toyota.com. Dealers are actively promoting the program and are offering a range of these products to customers as they finance their new vehicle purchase. More update on ARB's Toyota U.S.A. business will be made available shortly. Further commentary on the Ford business in the U.S. is presented in the latest slide. Finally, we're very pleased to announce that ARB has acquired a retail site in Seattle, Washington, to pilot our first U.S. flagship store. Seattle has been selected as one of our top... Sorry. Seattle has been selected as it is one of our top-performing sales regions today, but is also in close proximity to the ARB U.S.A. head office and distribution center. Building plans are currently with council and we expect the site to open early 2024.
Moving on to Slide 17 and an update on the Ford relationship. The relationship with Ford Motor Company is strong. Both companies are pleased with the commercial results following the engineering collaboration involving the Ranger, Everest and Bronco. The new Ford Ranger and Everest are now visible in the Australian market, with strong demand for both vehicle and accessories. ARB had a full lineup of accessories for both vehicles available at launch, a step ahead of our competitors. Ford and ARB dealer networks have been working closely together to support customer vehicle and accessory demand. The program provides customers a Ford-backed five-year warranty of the vehicle and accessories, where the accessories can be financed in with the new vehicle sale. The program in Australia is performing very well and delivering strong results for both Ford and ARB.
In the U.S., Ford continues to develop the ARB FLA offering focused on the Bronco and Ranger platforms. Unlike Australia, safety critical products require much more engineering work from a compliance standpoint. Ford are placing consistent orders for accessory products and are becoming an important revenue customer in the U.S. ARB has been working closely with Ford engineering on accessories for the all new U.S. Ranger. Now, it's important to point out that the launch of the all new Ranger in the U.S. trails the Australian release and is due to be in market in the second half of this calendar year. ARB will have a comprehensive lineup of accessories available at launch for the Ranger to be sold through both Ford channels, and ARB's aftermarket channels. Ford and ARB are rolling out the FLA program in several key markets internationally.
Ford Europe and Ford New Zealand have both kicked off local programs. Both offices are now receiving orders and supplying products to their respective Ford office. Ford programs in Southeast Asia, South Africa, and the Middle East will be in market within this calendar year. Moving on to Slide 18 and an operations update. Further exciting international expansion news that ARB has acquired the Proform manufacturing site in Hamilton, New Zealand. The site, which includes a healthy parcel of land, is being developed as a 5,000 sq m expansion to support manufacturing, warehousing, and to consolidate the domestic retail and distribution company, Beaut Utes , onto one site. The expansion will include an all-new ARB flagship store, conveniently located on the main highway connecting Hamilton to Auckland.
Now an update on our 33,250 sq m factory in Thailand. The site has been completed on time and on budget. Consolidation of manufacturing in Thailand to this site, as well as commissioning of new machinery is underway and will be a continuous program through 2023. The site will provide manufacturing efficiencies to the business, which is currently run across five different sites. It will also provide expansion capacity into the future as new contracts and products come to market. Finally, as a part of the head office redevelopment, the engineering team now have a new 1,000 sq m center of excellence.
The site was completed in December 2022 and provides a state-of-the-art engineering facility, testing equipment, prototyping workshops, and secure areas for confidential developments and OEM work. Our 100+ design and production engineers are now on site developing our future lineup of class-leading four by four accessories. On to Slide 19 and our current focus. The senior leadership team remains focused on core initiatives to drive short term and medium term performance of the business. Domestically, we will continue to grow the flagship store network by both upgrading existing stores and growing a national footprint. This will be done through both corporately owned and independently owned stores. Fitting capacity remains a key constraint of the business. ARB is focused on increasing the number of fitters within our stores, as well as various retention initiatives for fitters currently employed in the business.
While we're disappointed with the performance of the U.S. business in the last half, ARB's future in the U.S. market is very bright. We have a strong brand, an excellent product lineup, and with the addition of the e-commerce platform and our trial of the flagship store in Seattle, we're excited to watch the business develop in the next few years. Inventory is a key focus of the operations of the team globally. While we do not anticipate a rapid reduction in inventory levels, with heightened focus of the business, improved freight lead times, improved raw material and finished goods supply, we do expect to see more efficiencies in inventory over time. In both existing and new export markets, we continue to develop our brand presence and improve distribution channels globally. Finally, onto the outlook. The directors and the senior leadership team are excited about the future of ARB.
With various key initiatives to support future growth underway and a very capable senior leadership team, we have a strong vision of success for the future within the company. ARB maintains a positive short-term outlook based on the continued strong order book, which is in line with order levels throughout 2022. ARB is focused on supporting export markets and pursuing various market opportunities whilst managing input costs and global supply chain pressures. The board believes ARB remains very well positioned to achieve long-term success through new product development, expansion of the Australian aftermarket, strategic development of OEM customers in Australia and overseas, increased distribution and manufacturing capacity, and the continued development of the senior leadership team at head office through our state offices and subsidiaries and within our international businesses. That concludes today's presentation.
I'd like to take the time to thank all shareholders and investors for joining us online today. Damon will now move to the questions.
Okay. Thanks, Lachlan. Now just sifting through. Thanks to those who've submitted questions over the platform. Just working our way through them and trying to group them into various groups. Lachlan, I'll hand to you in a moment. There's a few questions around U.S. distribution and our strategy in the U.S. First up, there's a number of questions around sales margins and when we expect them to improve and what they might look like over the second half of this financial year and into FY 2024.
We've mentioned throughout the presentation that we've taken sales price increases, and we've taken sales price increases over the last 12 months, and those price increases take a little time to filter through to our results, particularly with the very healthy order book we still have in place. We've also mentioned that we see some costs moderating. For example, freight costs and steel costs did increase at a faster rate than inflation through those, particularly that COVID period, where distribution costs were often at 3 times historical levels. We've seen steel and freight come back. They will start to filter through to our margins into the second half and more fully into the next financial year. We have AUD 240 million worth of stock on hand.
some of that stock's been purchased at the higher costed values over the last 12 months. will take some time to filter through on a FIFO basis. I would suggest that we will see margins start to improve in this second half, and then we should see the full impact of the margin improvement in FY 2024.
I'll take this. There's a question that's come through about the fourth manufacturing site in Thailand. Just as a reminder, there are five manufacturing sites in Thailand. We just happened to acquire the fifth site before the completion of the fourth site. If that makes sense. The expansion to the fourth site in Thailand will allow us to consolidate. Running manufacturing of some common products across five manufacturing locations is tricky, and the extent of the size of ARB Four, as we call it, the fourth manufacturing site, will allow us to create efficiencies by taking some of the processes from the sites one, two, and three and putting them in site four so that we can get the right products being built in the right place to create those efficiencies.
Thanks, Lachlan. Some questions around the U.S.A., particularly the impact that the restructure of 4 Wheel Parts has had on the business. Can you comment on that?
Yeah. Look, I mean, 4 Wheel Parts was acquired by Polaris in 2018 and subsequently sold five years after. The acquisition by Wheel Pros has meant that they've cut a large part of the business out. They removed wholesale from the business, which was an important part of our sales through 4 Wheel Parts. We believe the most recent information is they've taken their store footprint from a peak of 104 stores down to between 70-80 stores is the most recent information. On one side, we've lost wholesale distribution, which we're regathering through other partners. On the other side, we've there's been a significant reduction in the number of retail stores 4 Wheel Parts have in market.
Okay. Lachlan, I'm gonna fire some U.S. ones at you, some U.S.-based questions that have come through. Has the Toyota U.S.A. collaboration officially launched?
Absolutely. Please visit toyota.com. Have a look at the Tacoma. You'll be able to see products, ARB products being on that site. I won't go through the list in detail, but you can do your own research. Jump online at toyota.com. Shop a vehicle, have a look at accessories, and you'll be able to see a range of products being offered through that site.
Okay. What month do you think the U.S. website will be live? I assume that's e-commerce.
Obviously, possibly the person that's written that question has never met an IT person, but we'll call it this calendar year.
Okay. Why is Seattle the right place for the first store? How is the company's brand awareness in the state of Washington versus the rest of the U.S.A.?
Seattle's a great location. We've always sold products particularly well in the Pacific Northwest. It is a strong overlanding sector. There's good money in Seattle. It's a very wealthy city and surrounding regional areas. Our DC is located there as well. To have proximity to the store, to be able to supply the store with products within hours, literally, it will help ensure our customers have good experience, and we can get products fitted up quickly.
U.S. how many pilot stores will we roll out before potentially moving to a full rollout?
One.
Okay.
We're trialing one. We'd like to see how it goes. We'd like to dip our toes in the water, and make sure it's successful and make sure that we understand what we're doing. We believe we will be successful, but we want to get the first one right and make sure that we present correctly to the market, make sure that if there's any lessons learned, that we take those into further sites.
Okay. Lachlan, does U.S. retail expansion impact on existing retail distribution relationships from a retail perspective and direct-to-customer offering?
Look, we don't believe so. you know, our customer network in the U.S. is reasonably diverse. We've been on the front foot with our key accounts in the U.S. and advised them this is what we're doing. They understand our strategy. No, I don't believe it adversely affects our partner business in the U.S.
Okay. I think we've responded to this question. Comments around U.S. sales suggest the sales issues for 4 Wheel Parts are beyond the transition to a new owner, and the new owner may not be as strong a supporter of ARB products through their channel. Is the primary driver of the change in U.S. strategy to become a retailer and not just a wholesaler? Actually, it's not a bad question. They're all good questions.
They're all good questions. Look, the strategies that we're discussing today predated the acquisition of Wheel Pros, and our vision for this space predated the acquisition of Ford Pass by Wheel Pros. I'd answer, no, we're not reacting to that situation. We certainly have a vision of our brand in the U.S. that we would like to take more control of. We'd also like to know what our retail customers think. One of the beauties of the Australian market is that we've got really strong connectivity to the Australian retail customer. They come into our sites, we meet them at shows and events, and that's quite difficult to do in the U.S. when you don't have your own retail outlets.
We think by online channels and via retail channels, by having direct access to the customer, we'll hopefully learn to better understand the products and the way our customers are using their vehicles so that we can build, design, and supply products to those customers, more in line with the needs of the U.S. market.
When you think about the size of the U.S. market, Lachlan, there's space there to be retailing and wholesaling.
Absolutely.
Large population to cover, large market. Okay. There's a number of questions around capital expenditure coming up. I might just quickly touch on those. We've obviously completed the fourth manufacturing site in Thailand. That capital spend has all been spent through to December 2022, so there's no further cash outflow in relation to that particular site. We do need to set the factory up, so there will be some spend on equipment as we move forward and as we consolidate the operations. We currently have the construction of our head office facility in Melbourne, in Kilsyth, Melbourne, Australia, underway. That capital expenditure will be approximately AUD 20 million, and that will be incurred over the coming two years.
We have, as we've announced previously, we've got capital expenditure in New Zealand, being incurred for the development of our manufacturing site there. That will be AUD 9 million. The other significant site where we're expanding at the moment is our national distribution center in Keysborough, Victoria, where we're putting another 5,000 or 6 ,000 sq m of warehousing space in, and the capital spend for that will be approximately AUD 5 million. We do have some significant capital expenditures still on the horizon to facilitate future growth. Beyond that, we have a number of stores that are under development, as Lachlan outlined earlier, Albury, in New South Wales, Mornington, Victoria, Osborne Park in WA, and Bundaberg in Queensland, plus the U.S. retail site in Seattle.
There is still capital expenditure in the pipeline for the next two years, as outlined earlier in my comments.
Okay. There's some questions coming through about providing some color to some of the information. Don't know why I have our crayons ready today for some coloring. Look, I without getting into details, we're hopeful that the export business declines have bottomed out, and we will see some stabilizing in the second half of the year. Beyond that, we won't provide any further information on that second half performance, particularly in export.
There's several questions, Lachlan, on the Australian-
Go on.
-aftermarket and what we're seeing that look like in the coming six months and 12 months.
Yeah. Stable. As presented, the demand for product is good. The order intake's good. The supply of product is good. We're very confident that we'll see the business in a good position domestically within Australia.
Yeah. The supply of vehicles is now starting to come through.
Yeah, the supply of vehicles.
Yeah. We're seeing new vehicles, as Lachlan described earlier. We're seeing new vehicle growth and that will hopefully continue into the short term, into the medium term. Really for us at the moment, it comes back to fitments and the ability to fit accessories to vehicles. That business will hold where it is and hopefully grow if we can get more fitters on board.
Correct. There's a question about the geographies involved in the new OEM contracts. Of course, Australia, and that holds true. I'll do this one. The U.S.A. and Europe are the three geographies that we have discussions with the OEMs and look forward to presenting more news on that within the calendar year. There's a question I'll read out. Given the problem you now have with distribution in the U.S., do you think the sales from your new direct-to-consumer e-site through For-To-Ford and Toyota and new retail stores recover the decline in sales via traditional channels?
Look, what I wanted to take the time to point out is that, the brand is in a great position. The sales through aftermarket channels in the U.S. are only as strong as the brand is and the quality of our distribution is. We will continue to work really closely with our existing aftermarket distribution partners and reinforce that business. We also need to create our own future through, distribution channels that we can control. As we grow and develop the ARB brand in the U.S., we very much are focused on growing both, ARB corporate distribution and independent distribution channels.
Okay. Just looking through our list here to see what we may not have covered.
I think we've covered most questions.
Yeah, I think we see a repeat on a number of them.
Okay.
Okay. Well, we might call it there. Well, again, thank you very much for everyone's time and attention online today, enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.