Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Peter Warren Automotive Holdings full year 2023 results. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mark Weaver, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss Peter Warren Automotive Holdings financial results for the year ending 30 June 2023. My name, as Scott said, is Mark Weaver, your Chief Executive Officer, and joining me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Victor Cuthell, who will assist me in presenting our results. Good morning, Victor. This presentation, along with the financial statements, have been lodged with the ASX for your information and can be found on our website at www.pwah.com.au. On slide two of today's pack, you will find our agenda. I will shortly provide you with an overview of our FY23 results, with a brief snapshot of our expectations of the period ahead, together with some key initiatives we have undertaken during this year.
Victor will then provide further detail on our profit and loss performance, our cash flow, and our capital management position. We will close with a look forward on our progress against our longer-term strategy and a more detailed look at our outlook for FY24. We will be delighted to take any questions you may have at the conclusion of our presentation today. Let's move then to the FY23 results highlights. On slide four, presented as a summary overview of our FY23 financial highlights, and I would best describe this period as one which demonstrates the diversity of our revenue streams, delivering a solid result. Our total revenue came in at AUD 2.07 billion for the year.
This number equates to a 21% growth on the prior period, remembering this incorporates the added performance of the Penfold acquisition, which was acquired in the comparative period. There are many initiatives behind this number, and I will elaborate on these in a few slides. Underlying EBITDA grew by over AUD 10 million, or 8%, representing a solid outcome in the period in which we saw a modest contraction in gross margin and the largely absorbed impact of cost inflation during the year. Moving on the top row, our profit before tax, or PBT, was marginally ahead of our expectations for the period at AUD 81.9 million. This was down around 7% on the prior year comparative, as we, like many of our peers, were faced with rising interest costs, but we are pleased with this overall outcome.
On the top right, you can see our statutory net profit after tax remain consistent with the results from the prior year. This equates to a statutory earnings per share of AUD 0.328. I'm delighted to share that our board have approved the payment of an cent per share, fully franked dividend for the period. This brings our FY23 total dividend for the year to AUD 0.22. This is consistent with the prior period and is testament to our focus on delivering strong returns for our shareholders. Victor will cover the details of that dividend later in our presentation. Finally, on this page, we remain focused on our ability to deliver on our consolidated objectives with a capafity to act.
Here you can see our net debt to property value, a key measure of our ability to acquire businesses, at 4% is in a strong position. Our net debt to EBITDA is a positive signal of a strong capital management strategy. We will hear more on that from Victor later also. I'll turn now to slide fiv, which lays out the work we have been doing to execute on our strategic objectives during the year and a summary FY24 outlook. Starting at the left with our FY23 highlights, the first two best sum up our performance. Overall, we are pleased with this annual result. Whilst we are certainly not immune to the impact of inflation, we are focused on a proactive and disciplined approach to cost management and recovery and have driven revenue growth across our business with success.
Our order bank continues to be a strength. We saw this grow year-on-year. We anticipate a steady unwind to its natural position over the coming months as supply improves further. We expect this order bank to remain strong in FY24 with secured gross margins. We have executed on a number of strategic initiatives in FY23, which are aligned to our three primary growth pillars. We consider ourselves well positioned for further consolidation, noting the successful completion of the Toyota and Volkswagen dealerships just after year-end, following a lot of preparatory work during the year. Moving to the right with our FY24 outlook. We anticipate revenue growth in FY24, underpinned by our strong order book. We've experienced improvement in vehicle supply in some OEM brands. However, consistency in supply remains a challenge.
As supply improves, there is a potential for limited margin contraction in new vehicles. We consider our diversity of brands, though, and importantly, our mix of revenue streams will continue to support our growth. We are focused on strong inventory and cost management to somewhat offset cost inflation. FY24 result would, of course, benefit from a full year contribution of the recently completed dealership acquisitions, and our net debt property value indicates considerable debt capacity and places us in a strong financial position to continue to act as a consolidator. We will revisit these points again in more detail later in the presentation. Let's move now to a deeper dive into the result with the FY23 results overview. Moving to slide seven, I'd like to provide some context on the shift in the underlying profit for tax outcomes for FY23 in the form of a profit bridge.
Moving from left to right, the first point of interest is the contribution of the Penfold acquisition for the full year. Remember, we acquired this business on the first of December 2021. So this first bar represents the additional contribution of that business, which continues to form ahead of our expectations. Moving right, our existing operations experienced strong revenue growth, which largely absorbed the cost increases experienced in the year, with the overall position contracting marginally. This includes the impact of transitioning to agency models, which have not delivered the outcomes expected, despite the floor plan relief expected in these arrangements. We have restructured these businesses throughout this period and expect this to be one-off in nature. The two bars to the right reflect the changing interest rate environment. The first represents a combination of increased floor plan rates and rising inventories as suppliers improved.
The second reflects the full-year addition of the capital loan secured against our property portfolio, which was used to partly fund the Penfold acquisition, as well as the impact of rising rates. We were disciplined and proactive in our cost management during the year and focused on cost recovery measures. We also cycled off a strong FY22 period. While the overall result was down, as I said before, it was ahead of our expectations. Let's turn to slide eight to take a look at the market conditions. The left-hand side chart implies a steady growth in vehicle supply through the period in the form of VFACTS volumes, which represent national deliveries, noting this data is not orders taken. By brand, the position varies with patchy arrivals of stock heavily impacted by port congestion.
Consistency is a challenge, and product mix leads to holding inventory for some models, alongside scarcity and availability for others. Overall, though, our volume grew 18% in new cars with a notable spike in May and June. I note the July position returned to the trend line. On the right-hand side, you can clearly see the gap that has been generated by supply issues from the average experienced in the market pre-COVID. This pent-up demand is partly recorded in our order book, but also represents vehicle demand not yet on order. This number ignores the compound growth the industry has experienced naturally over the last two decades. We share this with you as a visual demonstration of not only the opportunity in new cars, but the flow-on effect of availability of used cars and upside in parts and service departments as the greater car park ages.
Turning to page nine, you can see demand continues to exceed supply, with our order book remaining at record levels. On the left-hand side, our order book is strong, still consistent with the prior period, despite the 18% growth in deliveries and despite the spike in activity in June of 2023. We expect a steady unwind to a normalized position as volatility in supply continues. We also draw investors' attention to the advances achieved in our recent acquisition, adding approximately 40% growth in orders. On the right-hand side, you can see how the order bank has grown with orders outpacing deliveries in each period since COVID began. June 2023 saw that pattern reverse for the first time, and we had the order book contract marginally.
I would point out, though, that this was short-lived, as July saw the gap reopen and our order book grew again, noting the post-year-end acquisition is not included in this chart. Turning back to slide, Turning to Slide 10 and back to the numbers. Slide 10 offers a deeper analysis into the performance of our business in the year. As you can see from the table in the top left, our revenues grew by 21.1% overall. For ease of reference, we have shown this position without the full year impact achieved from Penfold. The variance excluding Penfold indicates double-digit growth in the key parts of our business, and importantly, reflects the growth we have driven in higher margin areas such as parts, up 22.9%, and service up 23.4%. Sorry, I'm gonna correct those numbers.
Parts is up 21.9% and service up 13.5%. For a minute. This growth has come on the back of investment in our processes and technologies to ensure we can maximize our throughput on a per-order basis, as well as efficiencies achieved as we scale our operations. Going forward, we see a number of opportunities arising from key revenue streams that are not impacted in the same way as the new vehicle supply chain. In used cars, for example, we have restructured the profile of our inventory, established better processes for pricing strategies, and improving our pipeline, which will allow for growth going forward. This has impacted our gross margin in the current periods, and Victor will talk to that shortly.
We consider this a one-off activity and expect gross margin in used cars to recover to normal levels in FY24. We also continue to develop our digital offering, which I'll touch on later, with an example here being our strategic investment partnership with Taurus, our proprietary financier, who cover our online application process. This has grown through FY23 and builds on our digital capability out of dealership, allowing our assets to work for us while the physical sites are closed. Turning to slide 11, I wanted to touch on some of our ESG initiatives. We have made good progress in FY23 across our responsible business pillars, having completed our first carbon footprint review in the year.
We have coupled this work with a series of energy audits and shown development plans to incorporate energy conservation measures that have begun to roll out in FY23 and are set to continue in FY24. From a people perspective, our GIFT principles continue to drive our team and consumer engagement standards. Our culture is strong, and our mid-year engagement survey of our 2,000-plus people reinforced that position with both strong participation and above-average results. We continue to focus on our safety culture and demonstrating a pathway of continuous improvement. As some of you would be aware, we had a major safety incident in Queensland in the first half of the year, which resulted in serious injuries to some of our team, and regrettably, one of our team members lost their life.
We remain committed to provide safe facilities for our teams and customers. Our sympathies and continued support to those impacted by this tragic incident. Lastly, on this page, a focus on addressing the future workforce needs of our business has been driven by embracing youthful employment opportunities as we continue to develop our apprenticeship and traineeship programs through strategic partnerships. For the third consecutive year, we've been nominated in the New South Wales Training Award for Large Employer of the Year, to be determined later in 2023. Most pleasingly is our nomination to the National Innovation Award for Training. We take the future workforce needs of our business very seriously, and we are delighted to be recognized by the Australian Government for the work we are undertaking. Good luck to our teams for these finals towards the end of 2023.
I'd like to take a moment to discuss the transition to new energy vehicles. In the last six months, sales of battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have increased to 8%. We consider the EV market is poised to go through a considerable change as the next wave of NEV models hits the market. Our focus is on supporting our OEM partners as these models are supplied, and as indicated in the chart at the bottom right, we have a vast range of new energy vehicles in our current model lineup, with a 90% increase expected in the coming periods. This will see our offering extend to over 90 models, and I'd like to emphasize the diversity across the segments with strong representation in each of the volume, prestige, and luxury markets.
Peter Warren is well-positioned here for the second wave. We expect the early market leaders will be naturally diluted as the supply lag improves across a wider group of OEMs. We continue our work on extending our EV capability at our locations, with charging networks established across our sites and opportunities arising from complementary consumer products and adoption of new revenue streams through strategic partnerships linked to this growth. Before I hand to Victor, I want to briefly touch on work undertaken this year to clearly map both our digital and bricks-and-mortar customer journeys. Our goal is to provide a consistent customer experience through all of our sales channels: in person, online, self-serve, call center, and chat capabilities, all driven by our desire to provide customer choice.
We have developed our offering with investment in technology to enhance our current revenues and provide our customers with 24/7 access to our products and services. This provides us with cost efficiencies going forward and greater centralization, another important feature of scale as we continue to consolidate this fragmented industry. Okay, that's it for me for now. I will hand over to Victor, who can talk us through in some more detail our FY23 financial summary. Thanks, Victor.
Thanks, Mark. Turning first to page 15, you can see that we've achieved growth in all of our metrics during the year. Our revenue is up AUD 362 million, to AUD 2,073 million, and it would have been up further if our Mercedes-Benz deliveries had full revenue recognition. Following the introduction of the Mercedes agency model on one January 2022, we now record the commission earned on these vehicle sales, and we no longer record the price of the vehicle as revenue. Our figures also include the benefit of our Penfold acquisition on one December 2021, and the step up from including a full year of Penfold revenue was approximately A 150 million. We've benefited from increasing supply of new vehicles by OEMs, but stable supply of the right vehicles will take quite some time to achieve.
Even with the recent increase in supply, our order bank has remained very strong, and this puts us in a great position for the year ahead. The third chart shows statutory EBITDA growing by 13.9%, which includes, firstly, our acquisition, and secondly, it reflects revenue growth in each of our six departments. We had to control our costs and margins very carefully to achieve the flow-through to EBITDA. Our PBT was AUD 81.1 million, which was the same as last year on a statutory basis and down on an underlying basis. Turning to page 16, we have our P&L. All of these figures in the table are statutory figures, other than the acquisition costs and the front costs. Our revenue growth of 21.1% reflects growth in every department, plus our Penfold acquisition.
Outside of growth in vehicle sales, we benefited from more kilometers being driven by Australians and more servicing and parts as a result. The gross profit percentage reduced from 20.0% to 18.9%, and I'll dissect that on my next slide. The combination of revenue growth, GP percentage movements, and the acquisition delivered us AUD 50 million extra in gross profit. Our operating expenses also increased due to the acquisition, and that represented AUD 16.9 million of the AUD 39.6 million increase in OpEx. I'll talk about our cost control in a moment, as this has been a big focus for us. We have a significant part of our cost base that is fixed rather than variable. By leveraging and tightly controlling our costs, we've seen the volume growth flow down through the P&L and generate an 8% increase in EBITDA.
We're not immune to rising interest rates, however, this has been the largest factor causing our interest expense to increase by AUD 12.3 million. We continue to focus on our interest expense and on our inventory levels. Looking forward to FY24, we would expect the revenue growth to continue, not just in new cars, but in service and parts and in other areas. We expect that interest costs may increase. We don't believe that the rate of increase in FY24 will be as high as that seen over the last year. Moving on to slide 17. This slide shows our movement in gross margin percentage. Our overall margin for the year was 18.9%, which compares with 20.0% in FY22 and 18.6% in FY21.
I will take a few moments to dissect the factors shown on the bridge below. Firstly, the accounting for the agency model actually caused our margin to increase by 0.9% from last year to this year. That's because we no longer count the price of the car as our revenue. Instead, we only count our commission, which was formerly gross profit. Next, the agency model involves the OEM giving us a lower GP percentage as they take on some of the costs themselves. For example, interest on floor plan, marketing, and other items.... The reduction from that was 0.7 percentage points. Our used car margins were lower, and this contributed -0.5%. As Mark mentioned earlier, we identified a change in the used car market during the year, and we responded by reviewing our profile of inventory carried.
Our used car inventory is AUD 10 million lower at 30th of June versus the prior year, this means we're well positioned to grow FY24. The revenue mix contribution of -0.2% reflects that we sold more new and used A re lower margin than service and parts. We obviously earned more dollars, we diluted the GP percentage. We received less Apprentice Booster government grant income, this accounted for -0.3%, as the program winds down. However, we have benefited from the growth in service personnel as a result, we did see a revenue growth in service by 13.6%. This program has been a success for us, as, again, we got more dollars even though the GP percentage reduced.
In some respects, these GP percentage changes reflect that we are comparing to a COVID-impacted trading period in FY22. In other respects, you can see that we earned more GP dollars from our volumes, even though the GP percentage itself went down. This all appears in the P&L, where our GP dollars increased considerably on an ex-acquisition basis. Our OpEx expenses are the next part of our P&L story, so I'll turn to page 18. This shows our operating expenses, where there has been a lot of activity during the year. We have encountered the same inflationary pressures as any other retailer, so we have also had the complications of the Penfold acquisition, which added AUD 16.9 million, and extra staffing to service the volume increases, which added AUD 5.4 million.
Outside of those factors, we have been tackling cost inflation with a cost control program, which incorporates these wage and salary increases below inflation, cost recovery initiatives in service and parts, procurement reviews, and other initiatives. The bridge shows the various steps in our operating expenses over the year. At the end of the year, we were very pleased to achieve a good level of P&L leverage, with a 0.8% drop in OpEx as a percentage of sales, after adjusting the revenue for the agency effect. Going into FY24, we are continuing our cost control program. We expect a more modest level of cost increases in FY24 and continued growth in our revenues. Turning to page 19, this shows our operating cash flow conversion for the year, which was very high at 88%.
This was consistent with last year's 91% and reflects that we are a strong cash-generating business. Our cash flows also reflect a disciplined approach to CapEx. On the back of our cash flows, I'm pleased that our directors have declared a fully frank final dividend of AUD 0.11 per share. This brings the full-year dividend to AUD 0.22 per share, which is in line with last year. This represents a full-year payout ratio of 67% of net profit after tax. Payment for this will be the 3rd of October, 2023. On slide 20, we'll turn to that slide, and you can see our cash and debt position. Our floor plan financing grew by AUD 97 million, as OEM supply improved and inventory moved up from a very low base. Our property value grew by AUD 25 million.
Our net debt fell to only AUD 8 million, although we added AUD 45 million to that after the event when we completed our acquisition of the Toyota and VW dealerships. As you can see, at the end of the period, we had very modest leverage, and after that acquisition, we still have a lot of debt capacity to fund future acquisition opportunities. I'll now hand back to Mark to discuss our acquisition strategy, our wider strategy, and the outlook for our business.
Thanks, Victor. Let's move on now, as Victor said, to our strategy and outlook segment of our presentation. On slide 22, you will recall our long-term strategic focus remains anchored to our three primary pillars, which prioritize organic growth, evaluation of suitable acquisition opportunities, and leveraging our property portfolio. Our group is well-positioned with diversity and scale to keep growing in this market, and our network of infrastructure puts us in a strong position. Through the localized delivery of our suite of offerings and leveraging our GIFT values of growth, integrity, focus, and teamwork, we will continue to deliver our workplace culture and core values. On slide 23, we highlight the journey we have been on since listing, through those three primary pillars.
The top bar shows the growth pathway we have undertaken in recent years, having added AUD 700 million in revenue in just three years, increasing our activities by over 50%. We continue to demonstrate our ability to deliver sustainable growth through a combination of organic and inorganic means. Our acquisition activity has increased our number of franchises to over 80, and in the most recent year, we have seen the addition of Isuzu UTE at our Penfold operations in Burwood, Hyundai, as we push the market share north of the Gold Coast towards Brisbane, and of course, the more recent acquisitions of Toyota and Volkswagen, settled in the days just after year-end. As we turn to slide 24, as a stated consolidator, there is a large cohort of dealers with smaller rooftop holdings that naturally become likely targets for growth.
With under 25% of dealer rooftops owned by the top 11 groups, clearly our position is strong and the addressable market is substantial. While we remain active in assessing new opportunities, discipline to focus our attention on the right assets is a clear strategy and has worked for us. One that we will utilize again as we go forward. We have repeated the revenue growth story in the bottom right, this time emphasizing the 14.7% compound annual growth we have experienced in recent years. Acquisitions are a key element of that growth as we look forward, as I said before, Peter Warren is well-placed with the features listed on the left-hand side. Supported by a substantial property portfolio, we consider our business is well-placed and poised for this growth. On to our outlook on slide 25.
Starting in the left-hand box, our market through the period has continued to see new vehicle demand exceed supply. With the group order book remaining at record levels, we have experienced some improvements in supply, but the latest challenges of shipping delays and biosecurity hurdles means this remains inconsistent and patchy across the various brands we represent. Product mix, product mix remains an issue, and getting the right cars into Australia to meet those demands will be an ongoing challenge in the short term. The macroeconomic environment and consumer sentiment are evolving, and while FY24 will be affected by the elevated interest rates and increased inventory levels experienced in FY23, we continue to adapt our business accordingly.
From a trading outlook perspective in the middle bar, we are focused on disciplined inventory and cost management, and on driving growth across our diversified revenue from service, parts, finance, and used cars to somewhat offset cost increases. We anticipate improving supply and continued volume growth in FY24, underpinned by our strong order book. This comes with the potential of limited margin contraction in new vehicles, as we have commented on previously. Of course, our FY24 result will benefit from the recently acquired Toyota and Volkswagen operations at Warwick Farm and Bathurst. Moving to the far right, with our strategic priorities now well established, we will continue to execute those plans with a focus on diversity of revenue streams, technology-based solutions, consumer-focused initiatives, and cost recovery measures.
Our group is well-placed to take advantage of this market and continue to act as a consolidator, and we have the capital management capability to execute when required. Okay, that concludes our presentation for today. As a reminder, there is more material in the appendices to this presentation deck, including our balance sheets, a number of P&L reconciliations, and a summary of our franchises by location for your reference. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our team for their resilience and determination to deliver this outcome. Congratulations, all. I consider this period to be one of success. I offer much gratitude to our continuing business partners for their support during the period. Finally, today, to our investors, thank you for your continued support throughout this period and ongoing. We very much appreciate your time today.
Victor and I would be delighted now to take any questions you may have, and Scott, I will pass back to you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two . If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before asking a question. Our first question comes from Elizabeth Miliatis. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen, and thank you for taking my question. The first one's just on the gross margin and the awesome bridge that you included in your slide deck. In terms of just the timing impact of some of those factors in going into 2024, you know, how should we think about gross margins going into 2024, and how some of those blocks in your bridge might impact the margin?
Thank you, Elizabeth. I'll, I'll just talk about that slide and that, and that bridge. Maybe we could put the bridge on the screen, Maddie, if that's okay. Looking at that particular page, page 17, the block number one, which is agency accounting, will not be a factor in FY24. We have a consistent method of, we have a consistent business model in place now that the agency introduction rolls out of the comparative period. Block two will, will, there'll be no further reduction in FY24, I expect, in relation to item two, because again, the agency, the pre-agency situation will disappear from the comparative period.
Item three is the reduction in used car margins, and the largest, almost all of that relates to the reset of our used car inventory. We would expect our used car margins to probably improve a little bit during FY24. Our revenue mix could be a factor in FY24, depending on the volume of vehicles that we sell. As you can see, it's a smaller part of the bridge. Apprentice Booster, there could be a very small reduction in FY24 compared to FY23, that again, would be significantly lower than the 0.3 percentage points there. Did that answer your question, Elizabeth?
Yeah, that was absolutely very clear. Then just also on the cost control that you guys achieved through FY23. Again, are some of those initiatives that, that you implemented through 2023, partway through, and therefore you might still get some benefit from a cost side going into 2024?
Yeah, I, I, I would say, yes to that, and of course, we continue to manage our costs very carefully. so, so true in both regards.
Okay, thank you for taking my question.
Thanks, Elizabeth.
Our next question comes from Phillip Chippindale of Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Thanks, guys. Appreciate your time. Just first question, Victor, you mentioned this used car inventory was reset during the year. This might be a really basic question, but can you just expand on that? What are you referring to here?
Mark, do you want to pick up?
Yeah, I might jump in there, Phil. Good morning. So there, there was a fair focus around the sort of turn of the half year. We, we, we were looking forward at that time and seeing what we considered to be a possible correction in used car prices, occurring in, in the first few months of the second half. We, we got, we got largely ahead of that curve and started looking at our inventory profile and determining that, you know, we, we, we simply had to meet market on some of these vehicles to, to not, not get exposed. On top of that, we, we had, we had a quite a strategic initiative running through most of the year to actually, actually, you know, revisit our, our used car growth potential.
That included things like, looking at the full process of where we were sourcing cars from, the centralization of things like reconditioning, our pricing strategy, where we would and would not utilize, you know, our, our own websites and third, third party lead providers. We have had quite a focus on restructuring our used car department for, for retail growth. In FY23, I'd, I'd probably describe that as a focus on the pipeline, and that included, us addressing the profile of our inventory, which Victor's referred to. As we go forward, our focus is very much on growing that retail number.
We believe we're in a very strong position as we turn into 1st July, 2024, with a much corrected inventory profile and much better processes in place to take us forward to the next period.
Okay, thanks. I'm just turning to cost pressures and your efforts to the cost control. On slide 18, you've outlined that AUD 4.4 million increase in wage rates over the course of the last 12 months, which is just a little over 2% of the base. You know, obviously, at a headline number, that's at a very controlled figure. Have you got a sense of what sort of cost inflation you're expecting on a similar basis going forward? Will it be in that sort of, you know, 2%-3% range?
I'm certainly not able to quote the number, and I'm not being smart there. But that, that number you're probably referring to is, is our wage cost in our P&L. That, of course, includes a fairly significant proportion related to commissions. Of our fixed retainers, yes, we have, we have the lion's share of our workforce that are paid to awards, and those awards have moved again in this period. That, that adjustment has been made on the first July. There will be no further adjustment through the rest of this period. But it's a, it's of a similar ilk that it was last year, and I'm, I'm sure you can look up the award changes in, in, in, in your own profile.
It is diluted in part by commissions. The commissions are, are to our benefit, where we get to tweak commission structures to drive the things that we want to drive, and largely, you know, do, do not move to the same extent. So when you dilute the two, I, I would expect the same sort of impact in FY24.
Okay, great. That's, that's all for me.
Thanks, Phil.
Our next question comes from Jack Dunn from Citi. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Just a quick one. Can you just touch on the current order levels you've seen in the past couple of months, and maybe how they compare to the same period last year?
Yeah. Good morning, Jack. Thanks for the question. Yes, I, I certainly can. In part, I guess it depends on what you're comparing to. Firstly, I'd say, our, our, our order bank is very stable. As you can see from the presentation deck, our, our orders are very consistent with how we left FY22. And they're strong in terms of the makeup of that order bank and the gross margin that's captured in there. In terms of order right, it, it, it has been, has been a little contracted on, on the prior year. Previously, we've spoken about numbers. It was sort of, you know, there was a few months up, few months down.
I think we've, we've had a consistent pattern of it being marginally down on the prior year through the last six months. I, I would probably comment on that, that we are cycling, a very strong, period this time last year. Not only the, the second half of FY22, but the first couple of months of FY23 were strong on order right. this information is, is in the, is in the slide deck we've, we've actually produced for you, our order right. You can, you can go and get a, a broad snapshot. On historical levels, we're, we're still running well.
Of course, you know, we, we do pick up the benefit of the order bank that's been acquired as part of the Toyota and Volkswagen acquisition, which of course, is order right, that's been written through a period where we don't own the business, but nonetheless, we get the benefit of delivering on that. There, there is certainly some upside.
All right. Perfect. Thank you. Then just your comments around volume growth in FY24. Just able to clarify, that's including your recent acquisitions, or you're expecting like-for-like volume growth in 2024?
We would expect like-for-like volume growth in FY24. The current trajectory of new car sales, which you would see in VFACTS, the current, the increasing supply of vehicles by OEMs, are one fact- or a couple of factors. In addition to that, we would expect our, our service and parts businesses to see increasing organic growth, like-for-like growth, as a consequence of the increased number of kilometers people are driving and the increase in car park. We do think these high-margin parts of our business are important to-- for maybe to keep in mind because we are, we are a business of diverse revenue streams, and some of these have significantly higher margins in these areas. Yes, we do expect like-for-like- ... revenue growth.
Yeah. As well, from the previous question, you know, we're, we're, we're obviously, at the behest of award movements in labor rates, but we are running some very labor-intensive businesses as well. Our opportunity to recover those costs, will obviously have, top line growth, in that regard, too. We, we are expecting to have growth across, every, every segment of our business in FY24.
All right, perfect. Just one more from me.
Just on the order bank, you mentioned you thought it would unwind over the coming months. Do you have any indication of, I know this is, you probably won't be able to answer, but indication of how long it will take to unwind? Do you think it would unwind over the course of the next 12 months, or do you think it would take a bit longer?
Yeah, Jack, that's a really interesting question, because I've been asked that for the last two years, and every time I've said-
... you know what? Once, once there's a little bit of reorganized supply for the market, we would expect that order bank to plateau. I've been proven wrong on that, a couple of times already. It would be remiss of me not to, not to put that out there as a potential. So far, as you've seen from FY22 to FY23, that hasn't happened. In my view, you know, we've still got an order bank that sits in that sort of 4 to 5 months. In fact, it's probably inflated a little bit post-year-end as a result of the Toyota acquisition. It is a very slow period indeed.
I, I mean, I can see our order bank still being just as strong come the turn of our half year, and by this time next year, I suspect we're still talking about the strength of that order bank. It is a very long and orderly unwind, and we will be talking, yeah, well, well past 12 months in my view.
All right. All right, Victor, thanks so much for taking my questions.
Thanks, Jack.
Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question comes from Sarah Mann, from Moelis Australia. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just another question on GP margin. You've given some good detail around, I guess, some of the anticipated movement going forward, but just interested, I guess, given the Toyota acquisition, given that's got a really strong order bank and probably industry-leading margins, like, as that stock kind of comes back and you can kind of deliver into that order bank, can you give us a feel for, I guess, how much of, I guess, the benefit you could get from that might offset some of the pressures in the rest of the business from a GP perspective?
Yes, certainly. I'm going to draw the distinction here between GP dollars and GP margins. We, we, we have, yeah, in the material that we've put out, which is, which is quite, quite detailed in relation to that Toyota acquisition, I'm sure you would have spotted in there that given, given the focus and concentration on new vehicles, and particularly importantly, is the acquisition of a significant fleet business, the margins that are actually achieved at a, at a percentage level in Toyota are considerably lower than us as a group. At a GP margin perspective, I would actually expect our margins to probably contract as a result of absorbing that business in, into ours.
As you can see from, from the chart that Victor presented before, there are a lot of moving pieces in GP margin, and it's important for us to, to explain what they are, but nonetheless, that don't actually impact on, on gross dollars. Back to your question, on, on the dollar side, yes, I, I do think as we have acquired a significant order bank, we will, we will have an upside in our, in our volumes and our revenue and through our gross margins, and the gross margins in Toyota are strong on a dollar basis. That they are not as strong as the combination of the rest of our business at a GP percentage basis. Victor, I don't know if you want to add anything further to that?
Just that I would add that, although the Toyota GP % will be lower, clearly the GP dollars will increase significantly as a part of that, and we'll be very pleased to see it occur.
Right. That's very helpful. Thank you. The other question was just on F&I. Just wondering, are you seeing any signs of kind of financiers tightening their lending conditions at all? Is that flowing through to penetration?
Yeah, great question. There, there are no, there are no particular signals around that. You know, the issue, I guess, is we face at the moment is still long delays, and so people, people are essentially having to apply twice, once on the order, and then revisit their circumstances again, on delivery. On, on occasions, people's circumstances change, their mortgage has gone up, you know, their cost of living has gone up, if their, if their wages have not adjusted, then clearly their capacity to service that, that debt changes. I don't think that's a change in lending criteria. I think that's a change in people's circumstances. We've seen a little bit of that, and our, our penetration has, has softened a little bit, as you probably would have expected in, in an inflationary period.
It's not notable, though, and compared to our industry, I'd still be confident that we would be, we'd be up there against the benchmarks that are produced by people like Deloitte. You know, we pride ourselves on our FNI penetration, and we've done a really good job through this year, and we'll continue that journey in the used car environment, which has improved dramatically. So I'm not sure I would link that back to anyone tightening their belt on the financial side. I think that's more, you know, individual's capacity to be able to service the debt.
Makes sense. Last question from me is just a broader one, I guess, around your portfolio strategy and with EVs as well. You kind of mentioned, you know, your brands that you currently support bringing in a whole lot of new products, and that should eventually kind of take some market share. Firstly, like, what % of your new car deliveries in the period were new energy vehicles relative to kind of the 15%-16% industry level? Secondly, like, when you look at your portfolio, are there any brands that you think are particularly strong or weak in EVs, and would there be any, you know, particular brands you'd like to add to your portfolio that you think could maybe strengthen your offering there?
Yeah, in answer to the first question, I'm not gonna get into the details of what our percentage is, if that's okay, Sarah. What we-- I mean, the arrival of electric vehicles from what I would call the mainstream brands, has been limited through the course of FY23. You, you've only got to look at VFACTS numbers and, and, you know, compare the electric vehicles to some of the big players in that space like Tesla. I mean, Tesla make up 60% of all EVs in Australia. Clearly they've got a, they've got a large share. The comment I'm making is, it's, it, it has been a supplier lag, which has been the issue.
The other OEMs, those traditional OEMs that have been around for many decades, have been busy out there developing their own EV strategies. We are, we are very delighted to be partnering with them, in fact, piloting, in a lot of cases, their, their EV strategy to market. We see those cars coming through, in, in, in the current climate. That will extend our range to about 90 models, when you compare that, let's say, theoretically, to Tesla's two, that's gonna give consumers out there a huge amount of choice. We consider ourselves very well placed to take advantage of that. In, in terms of the individual brands, there, there are some that are, have been able to deliver vehicles into market.
Volvo is a good example of that, that they projected their strategy of, of EV by 2025. We are, we are strong representation in, in Volvo. I, I actually see some good benefits and advantages coming in the luxury end as well. Perhaps those people that previously have been drawn into the concept of an EV, now, you know, everyone in their neighborhood is driving a, driving a similar EV, they might look to different, different markets. I, I see that as a good opportunity.
you know, as it says on the side, we, we've got a pretty diverse representation, and we are, we, we are, we are pushing hard to make sure the OEM see us as a leading ambassador for their brands and the push into market.
All right. Thanks very much.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand it back to Mr. Weaver for closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you, Scott. I just want to say a big thanks for taking the time out this morning to listen in, and indeed for your questions. We certainly appreciate the continued support of the network out there, and importantly, our investors. A big thank you again to our, our teams for your dedication and resilience to deliver on a successful result this year. Enjoy the rest of your day ahead, and thanks again for your time.
That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.