I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Andrew Doyle, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Kayleigh. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss Peter Warren Automotive Holdings' 2025 interim financial results. My name is Andrew Doyle, your Chief Executive Officer, and I'm pleased to be here to deliver my first results and also to look forward to seeing many of you over the coming days. 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 corporate website. On slide two of today's presentation, you're going to find our agenda.
I will start with a summary of our results, my personal review of the business since joining, actions that are already underway, and some very clear views of the key focus areas we have and the opportunity that I see for the period ahead. Victor will then provide further details on our activities during the year before taking you through our financial performance. I will then wrap up with some comments on outlook. We will, of course, be delighted to take any questions you may have at the conclusion of our presentation today. Let's move then to the H1 financial year 2025 results highlights. On slide four here, we can see that the underlying PBT was delivered in line with guidance of AUD 6 million-AUD 8 million.
We start the slide with our total revenue in the top left of the slide, which came in at AUD 1.2 billion for the half, up over 2% on the prior year. Now, this reflects the organic growth we drove in almost all parts of our business and the benefit of acquisitions we made in the previous financial year. Moving to the right, and as mentioned, we delivered underlying profit before tax of AUD 7.1 million. This lower result was almost solely driven by new car oversupply, affecting margins across the automotive market, which we will cover in more detail. Meanwhile, over the half, we were laser-focused on those items that we can more directly control, including the high-margin after-sales business, where we saw very strong growth of 10.2% in service revenue and 4.3% in parts revenue.
Moving then to the bottom left of the page, a key part of minimizing both our stock holding costs and minimizing new car margin losses in the current market is our disciplined inventory management program, which is cascaded throughout the organization. We intensified this existing program to significantly lower our inventory levels by more than AUD 16 million over the period, with both a disciplined reduction of the oversupplied stock and, importantly, the intake of the right volume and mix of new car stock matching customer demand. We maintain a strong property backing with AUD 225 million in property assets representing a net debt-to-property ratio of 37%. Finally, the board declared an interim dividend for H1 of AUD 0.016 per share. I'll turn now to slide five, which lays out our underlying profit before tax bridge.
As mentioned earlier, by far the most significant impact to the PBT was the market pressure on new car margins due to vehicle oversupply, reducing our PBT by nearly AUD 30 million. The impact of lower new car margins was partially mitigated by our cost-saving measures and a clear focus on organic growth, including maximizing the more controllable opportunities we identified in other service lines. These opportunities saw a AUD 4.5 million gross margin benefit in addition to an AUD 11.5 million benefit from prior acquisitions. Our net OpEx increase was due to AUD 4 million of inflation, which was more than offset by a AUD 5.2 million benefit from our targeted cost-out programs, which are ongoing. Finally, interest increased by AUD 4.8 million, and Victor will dissect that in a few minutes.
Now, having been in the CEO role for just under four months, I'm even more motivated and determined to implement positive change at Peter Warren Automotive, and in this session, I'll provide my early overview of the company and the clear actions that are already in place. If we turn to slide seven in the next section, I will cover four key areas: the industry trends that are shaping our environment and how we are positioned for success, the Peter Warren performance and plans in place to further drive this performance, my first impressions of the business and the clear opportunities we've identified, and finally, the initiatives we have already implemented in line with a growth and performance-orientated company. Firstly, slide eight provides an overview of the recent developments in our industry.
Now, as we've all been reading about, it's going through the largest structural shift in more than 50 years. Some say the industry has never seen change like this before. Yet, with change, I firmly believe, comes opportunity for those that are prepared. We've been seeing a major movement of many OEMs towards electrification, a trend that is now stalling and causing significant investment pressure for those OEMs with legacy product portfolios and structures. There is the changing regional dynamic with massive investment from new Chinese entrants and their aggressive pursuit of market share. To add to this, we've seen broader macro market forces thanks to the global dynamic of a shift towards protectionism in North America and, to a lesser extent, the EU, leaving Australia as one of the few markets with open access.
Importantly, while this pressure is presenting a number of challenges in the industry, at Peter Warren Group, we see opportunities to capitalize on. As you'll see from the chart in the top right, we've seen significant growth in a number of OEMs, which has dramatically risen in recent years. For a market of circa 1.2 million vehicles, we have almost 70 brands, or we will have almost 70 brands in Australia by the end of 2026, and around 20 of these will be Chinese, and that's from just around about six today. Following the post-COVID chronic undersupply of vehicle production, OEMs have created increased market pressure with now oversupplied production and increased compliance costs due to regulations across the world, such as we have here with NVES, all within a market in Australia expected to be flat.
In some brands, an older model lineup and lower customer demand translates to significantly lower new car margins versus other brands. Whilst this picture is not particularly pleasing, at Peter Warren Group, we see the opportunity for the right retailers with the right mindset and professional management strength. In particular, we see opportunities to drive a high-performance culture in the brands we represent and the businesses we operate, reducing the performance dispersion and solidifying our position as the OEM trusted performance retailer of choice. We see opportunity to partner with the right new entrants in a careful approach. We see opportunity to grow the business across our diverse revenue streams further, being service, parts, used cars, and finance and insurance, ensuring we have a healthier balance to help future-proof the business.
We see opportunity to pursue strategically attractive and accretive consolidation opportunities, including individual dealers and businesses that may not be geared up to or may not have the appetite to adapt to the changing environment. To round that out, we will leverage our size, our scale, and efficiency, along with our management expertise, to capitalize on these opportunities. If we turn now to slide nine, here we are trying to illustrate to you management's disciplined approach on the controllable aspects of our business. We have a disciplined cost-out project in play. On the revenue side, you can see here that across our operations, there are multiple revenue streams that we work on across the customer ownership cycle to help mitigate the impact of lower new car margins.
For example, despite a new vehicle revenue decline of 9.1% due to market oversupply, which we have minimized where possible through prudent trading and management focus. During this first half, the Peter Warren team has, on a like-for-like basis, working, if you like, anti-clockwise around this chart, reduced stock by AUD 16.5 million in the six months from the June 2024 level, increased our used vehicle revenue by 7.5%, increased our parts and accessories revenue by 4.3%, our high-margin service business by just over 10%, and finally increased our finance and insurance business by 1.8%, all within a flat market. This was a great effort, and my thanks go to our teams for their disciplined approach to controlling the controllable here and in delivering these outcomes.
On slide 10, I will talk to my first impressions since joining Peter Warren Group and expand on some of the opportunities that I see. As an overriding comment, first of all, I'm very impressed with the caliber of the company and its people. I've personally visited every one of our 80-plus sites on multiple occasions and have had the pleasure of meeting most of the dedicated, loyal employees that make up this great team. With over 65 years of track record and experience, our company has excellent brand partnerships, a strong and positive culture, a management team with extensive experience in managing dealerships through multiple previous cycles, and very strong foundations. We have, I'm lucky to say, a highly experienced and active founder with a substantial shareholding, so he's firmly aligned with shareholders' interests.
We have a strong brand portfolio mix, acknowledging that some certain brands and particular sites are the main cause of the margin pressure we are facing. I will talk more to that in our reviewing our brand mix shortly. We have a very strong balance sheet with substantial property backing, which gives us good optionality to pursue our strategic goals. We have a proven history of growth and acquisitions with 3X revenue growth achieved in just seven years. We are increasingly seeing vendors prepared to engage given prevailing pressures. I firmly believe all of this presents strong opportunities which position us well to offset the cyclical new car margin pressure. At the macro level, despite an election in the first half of this year, we view interest rate relief, although modest for now, creating a more positive buyer sentiment. There are already signals of this improved activity.
Our cost-out models have already delivered savings. We will increase this with a focused sweating of our assets across our 80 sites, deeper scrutiny of our key suppliers and expense lines, and further utilizing the latest digital technology where we can to drive workplace efficiencies. I will personally be driving an even stronger performance focus across our brands, which will further narrow the dispersion of the results across our sites. We also see scope to further optimize our brand portfolio in certain locations. We do this by intensifying our performance with our long-term legacy brand partnerships while seizing, in a measured approach, opportunities with new entrants. I also mentioned pursuing growth opportunities in our other automotive revenue streams, which will be enhanced by mining our extensive Peter Warren database and further focusing on increasing our loyalty metrics.
I see opportunity to extend our growth as market dynamics stimulate further potential M&A in a fragmented market. In my opening presentation, turning to slide 11, I'll talk to what this really looks like in practice. Specifically, what initiatives are already underway to actively manage through the cycle and to deliver improved profitability going forward. I've broken this into four key areas of action: people, brand partners, operational excellence, and inorganic growth. All of these are underpinned by our most important asset of all, our customers, which are, as I see it, at the center of everything we do. They have the strongest seat in our business, and our goal is always to deliver benchmark customer delight. Firstly, with people, we set a strong target-driven culture. In this structure, the teams have clearly aligned targets that are regularly communicated and transparent.
They know their objectives, and they are incentivized accordingly. We have incredible loyalty in the Peter Warren Group, and my role is to continue to build our company as an employer of choice by helping our people grow careers at all levels of our organization, including via apprentice and management development programs. Secondly, with over 65 years in the industry, Peter Warren has built a reputation for our brand and OEM partnerships. Crucially, these relationships are close, close, and trusted. We build on that trust with strong retail performance, best-in-class customer care and performance orientation, and consistently driving our relative brand performance as a dealer into the top scorecard quartiles of those brands to remain the trusted partner of choice.
At the same time, while the dynamics of the market play out, we are strategically yet carefully managing our portfolio of brands to maximize our profit in our legacy brands and potentially divest of poorly performing brands or sites. Thirdly, we see operational excellence as the key to driving success in the business. We focus on all the non-customer impacting cost-out opportunities. We reduce our various dealerships' dispersion performance, and we build on the strong inventory management programs. We grow our high-margin service lines, and we utilize smart technology to replace redundant tasks. Lastly, we will always be thoughtful and deliberate in how we approach our inorganic growth through accretive M&A, including strategically adding new brands to our portfolio. Our back-office efficiency, size, scale, and market concentration make us an ideal partner, which we continue to leverage. All of this is backed up by a strong balance sheet.
We'll now move to the half-year 2025 financial summary, and I'll ask Victor to go into more detail on our financial performance. Victor.
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone. I'll start with an overview of the first half of the year. On slide 13, you can see our revenue has grown by 2.2% to AUD 1.23 billion. That reflected growth in used cars, service, parts, finance, and it also included the benefit of an acquisition. Excluding the acquisition, our revenue reduced as a result of lower demand for new cars. The graph on the bottom left of the page shows we sold fewer new cars than in the same period last year, a period which benefited from the fulfillment of large order banks. Our PBT reduced to AUD 7.1 million, which was within the guidance that we issued of AUD 6 million-AUD 8 million.
The largest factor causing that was the drop in margin, which I'll dissect in a moment. Turning to page 14, we have our P&L. Our gross margins reduced by AUD 13.3 million. That included a AUD 29.3 million reduction in the new car department, excluding acquisitions. That AUD 29.3 million included two main elements. Firstly, there was a reduction in the volume of new vehicles sold, and secondly, there was a reduction in the GP % on each vehicle. The second element was by far the biggest factor. The gross margin reduction was mitigated by the organic growth achieved in used cars, in service, in parts, and in finance and insurance sales. Our OpEx increased by AUD 6.9 million and included the effect of dealerships acquired since last year.
We have achieved cost savings, and we plan to achieve more, and I'll cover that in a bit more detail in a moment.
Our floor plan interest costs are up on the previous period on an ex-acquisitions basis by AUD 2.1 million. That's mainly because our stocks were very low in the prior period in July, August, September of 2023. Our run rate interest costs are now reducing as a result of our inventory management program. Slide 15 shows movements in our gross profit percentage, which, as Andrew has outlined, was primarily impacted by increased vehicle supply and lower new car margins. That factor reduced our margin by 1.8 percentage points on the prior corresponding period. Our margins remain effective in other parts of our business, including service, parts, used cars, and finance. The growth in these areas continues to support our overall gross profit, with our margin accretion programs being an ongoing focus. The bottom graph shows our margin reducing over time as new car supply has increased.
The most recent change in margin has been from 16.3% in the June 2024 half-year to 16.1% in the December 2024 half-year. Turning to page 60, our operating expenses are one of our controllables, and an area that continues to be a big focus for us. Our OpEx bridge shows that our acquisitions added AUD 8.1 million of OpEx. Our cost reduction programs generated savings of AUD 5.2 million, which offsets the effects of inflation. We see ongoing opportunities to reduce costs in our business. As gross margins reduce across the industry, we continue to apply the spotlight to our costs. Our current programs include the items shown here on slide 60: low return locations, productivity, supplier costs, people costs, and technology costs. Our OpEx as a percentage of revenue was 12% for the December 2024 half. That number has gone up as our like-for-like revenue has reduced.
Our cost reductions have been okay, but they haven't kept up with our revenue reductions. The bottom graph also shows that our first half OpEx percentage is usually a higher percentage than the second half. We would expect to see that OpEx percentage reduce in the second half of the year. We also expect our floor plan costs to reduce a little in the second half of the year, given our lower inventory levels and lower interest rates now being experienced. Page 17 shows our cash flow statement, with operating cash flow of AUD 29.2 million after floor plan interest. Our cash outflows reflect items that are expected to improve significantly in the second half. In the first half, we had a seasonal working capital movement of AUD 5.3 million.
In the first half, our CapEx of AUD 6.8 million was higher than usual due to the expansion of two dealerships, and we expect a lower CapEx in the second half of the year. Our net tax payments in the second half of the year will be much lower following a refund received in January. The directors have declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.016 per share fully franked. The payment date is on 26 March. I'll now hand back to Andrew to draw some conclusions and talk about the outlook.
Thank you, Victor. To conclude, we now move to the conclusions and outlook. On the left is really just a reminder of the key takeaways for the first half, which I have talked to earlier.
Clearly, market conditions have been tough, but we feel positive about all the things my team are doing that are within our control. While we do not see any near-term significant improvements to market conditions in the second half, it is worth noting that more moderate decline in gross margins versus the second half of 2024, as we expect any further deterioration in newcomer margins to be offset by the clear management actions we have taken and will continue to take. This is consistent with what we said in December. As outlined, there are a number of areas where we can really drive tangible performance improvements, and these are priority number one for me and for the team. Along with further cost-out initiatives we are focused on, these actions will see us emerge through the cycle in much stronger shape.
In the meantime, we continue to assess expansion opportunities, both in the form of greenfield sites and acquisitions, but only where that strategic fit and returns are compelling. I look forward to updating you on our progress at the full year results in August. I will hand back to the operator, Kayleigh, for questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Phil Chippindale with Ord Minnett.
Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for your time. Firstly, just on inventory levels, clearly you've brought those down noticeably in the first half.
Can you just sort of give us a sense of maybe the quantum of production you're aiming for in the second half and how you're going to achieve that, please?
I'll go first, and maybe Victor can add into it as well. I guess it's a balance is probably the right answer to put. As I mentioned in my presentation, what we are aiming at is a clear movement of age stock or stock that is not appropriate for the market right now. More importantly, we're focusing on that which is coming in in our production planning. We've been much more collaborative, if you like, with the OEMs in terms of ensuring that we are getting the right mix of stock coming through. That is improving both our stock level, as mentioned. We reduced by AUD 16 million, more than AUD 16 million over the period.
But also improving the health of the mix of the stock is our objective over this period of time.
Okay, thank you. Just touching on the OpEx line, you've got it in the second half that that percentage of revenue should go down from the 12%. You do have a helpful slide in there that shows that there's a seasonal aspect to this. Are you making moves in addition to that to lower the OpEx? That's my first question. The second one is, what have you sort of assumed from an inflation standpoint in OpEx in the second half? Should we, that AUD 4 million run rate increase in the first half, is that a sort of a similar level we should assume going forward?
To tackle the first question, yes, we have additional cost-out projects continuing in our business.
We do look to achieve some results from that going into the second half of the year. Secondly, we are working on the presumption that inflation will be broadly similar to its current run rate. Yes, it might tickle down 20 or 30 basis points, but we are working on the assumption it will be broadly similar.
Okay, thank you. Just on slide nine, you have broken down sort of the like-for-like moves in your revenue. The main one that stands out to me there is just the F&I number that was only up 2%. If we can compare it to the used vehicle number, it was significantly higher, and service obviously was really strong. Can you just talk to the F&I component and perhaps what drove that more modest increase?
Yeah, the driver of that is the lower number of new vehicles sold on a like-for-like basis.
Whilst used went up, as we've said here, new like-for-like went down. Our actual finance revenue per unit sold is actually extremely favorable.
Okay, thanks. Just finally, maybe you can make a comment on sort of the performance of the business over the last seven weeks since 1 January. Clearly, we can see the VFACTS data, but probably more a comment around that margin side of things is what I'm after there, please.
Yeah, maybe I can take that. The VFACTS study, as you say, showed about a 3% reduction, I think, in January. Order intake anecdotally has been more activity, I would say, over the last weeks, but it's a mixed bag. I would say the margin activity has been consistent with where we've been as we continue to work through our stock levels.
More importantly, the activity has been a little more favorable than it has been over the last six months. The rate of decline, I think you can see in our order intake that might have incurred in the second half, is also slowing. Actually, I would say it's generally in a more positive phase over these last weeks, but it's still early days in this half.
Okay, thanks. Andrew and Victor, I'll turn back and thank you.
Thanks, sir.
Your next question is from Elizabeth Miliatis with Jarden.
Good morning, gentlemen, and thank you for taking my questions. Just the first one around your comments saying there's a number of cost initiatives offsetting any continued margin pressures. In addition to that, sort of the work you've done around inventory should help, and obviously rates coming off.
In the second half versus first half, should we assume sort of the PBT margins in aggregate then are sort of holding steady given all those comments?
Yes, I think the steady hold in PBT margins is the right ballpark to be in. We've said in our ASX announcement that at an overall level, we would expect management initiatives to offset any further declines in margins, and a consistent PBT percentage is probably consistent with that. If it were to move, it would be very, very marginal. As in single bits.
Yes, yes, indeed. Just perhaps just on the acquisition side of things, obviously it's a very challenged market and still very fragmented, and so I imagine it's really hard to sort of withstand some of these pressures if you're a small player.
Do you see that there's more opportunity coming to you in this environment, and particularly at a hopefully a lower multiple and potentially something which can fuel earnings in the near term? Is that not a key focus currently?
It's always on our agenda in terms of what opportunities might be at play. As I said earlier, for us, it's very much about a measured and careful approach to make sure we do look at the right level of acquisition. I do think that the industry is changing, as I mentioned in my introduction earlier. I think as a fragmented market, as you mentioned, it does give potentially some operators the time to think that maybe now is not the time to remain in the industry long term.
That does not mean there is activity on the go, but I think that is certainly a general comment across the marketplace.
Okay, thank you. Just if I can stick in one final one, just on particular brands, you have made a few comments through your presentation about certain brands being more in vogue than others, and there will be potentially increased scrutiny across your suppliers. Are you seeing any particular areas of weakness that you think you might reassess? Yeah, any comment that would be helpful?
I think Peter Warren Group has more than 65 years of heritage. Back in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, the Peter Warren Group adjusts for what the market requires in terms of customer demand. If there is both an underperforming business or indeed a business that is not meeting the customer and demand, I believe we should look at it.
I really want to emphasize that that's a measured approach. We have some incredibly strong and outstanding performing businesses and brands, and they are our partners for long term and will be our partners for long term. That is what I talked about, OEM relationships. Like any good business, we have to look at those businesses that are perhaps not sweating our investment as best they could. In those areas, we will look for some measured change.
Okay, thank you.
Your next question comes from John Campbell with Jefferies.
Excuse me. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Just back to GP margins. When we look at the US market, and they give much better granularity, it looks like GP profit or gross profit per new and used vehicle has been coming down substantially over the last sort of year and a half.
From what I can see, it looks like used, the profitability per vehicle of used is back to sort of pre-COVID averages. Whereas new, even though it's come off a long way, new is still quite a way ahead of pre-COVID. I guess the question would be, what's your sense? Is that reflected in Australia as well? Are you seeing sort of profitability around used as sort of back to what you might say is sort of historic levels and new is still elevated? Just any comments on that, that would be great.
Maybe I'll just give a couple of opening comments, and maybe Victor can give a bit more granularity. In terms of supply in the used car market, that is still relatively tight. That is assisting with margins.
Of course, we are coming off quite a high level of margin in new car business despite the competitiveness of late. My view is used cars will remain quite a positive margin movement. New cars, I think, will equalize a little over time. Victor, maybe you want to add a bit more?
Yeah, I'll add. I echo those comments on used and that it's a positive environment. I'll just build on new cars. You mentioned new in the U.S. being still elevated prior to in relation to pre-COVID. That's not what we're seeing in Australia. In Australia, there is significant oversupply in the market, a highly competitive market that Andrew's touched upon. The GP used being achieved in Australia and the GP percentages being achieved in Australia are not in line with that elevation in the U.S.
They are much closer to pre-COVID levels. That's very helpful.
Thanks, Andrew. Victor, just one other question. Apologies, I sort of came in a little bit late, and you may have spoken about this, Victor, in the press. Just in terms of sort of net interest expense, which was up, obviously, for reasons you explained, in terms of the second half with base rates coming off, but still, I guess, elevated versus PCP, I mean, would it be right? Would we be right in thinking we could just maybe annualize that first half figure plus a bit, plus a bit on top, and then beyond that, presumably start to see benefit of lower rates?
I have got to get myself in trouble here. I am hoping to achieve a number that's no worse than the first half because our inventory levels are coming down.
Yes, the interest rate, it only applies to four months of the half, and it's only 25 basis points. Our inventory is the main factor here. I exclude from that AASB 16 interest, but all our interest may well be we're targeting for it not to go up.
Yes. Yep. Very helpful. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Chenny Wang with Morgan Stanley.
Yeah, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just first one on the inventory dynamics over the first half because it wasn't too long ago that you guys caught that being too high, too oversupplied. Now, I guess, like for like, it's down versus 30th of June, 2024. I guess, how did you manage that down so quickly?
Did you have to discount deeper to reduce some of that aged stock, reduce some of that, I guess, unfavorable mix that you talked about earlier?
Chenny, thanks for the question. As I mentioned in my presentation, quite a disciplined approach that was cascaded through the organization. Every single one of our operators received effectively targets to reduce their stock accordingly in a fairly disciplined approach. You have seen the impact of some of that on the gross margin, and that has been something that we have had to process through the business. I think it is the right measure to bring it back to where it is so that we can enjoy a better mix of stock and also a better floor plan cost overall.
Got it.
I mean, I guess with that kind of context, because on your gross margins, that decline that you guys were experiencing prior halves looks like it was really arrested in this half, right? Versus the second half of 2024, gross margins only declined something like 20 basis points. Given that kind of dynamic around managing some of that inventory in the first half and that having impact on gross margin, were there any kind of one-offs in that first half GM that we should be thinking about going forward? It does kind of feel like you guys have found a base. I know you guys have, I guess, talked to some of that in your presentation. Just kind of interested if there were any other one-offs that we should factor in going forward for gross margins.
Yeah, yeah.
Clearly understanding the question being, have you had a hit in each one margins as you cleared stock? What has been bearing on the outlook? As a headline, yes, we did get a good exercise on clearing out stock. It was a measured, sensible exercise, but we did a good exercise to do that. We continue to highly focus on stock and stock aging. I would not say there was a huge impact in the first half in terms of GP margin from clearing out stock. I would say also that we do see ongoing pressure in the new car margin area. As I know you like to do, when looking at the outlook for it, I would not factor in that H1 had a significant GP % hit from that exercise.
The other thing to mention is that the H1 FY2025 GP percentage of 16.1% that is shown on page 15 had a little bit of benefit in there from revenue mix. And by that, I mean an increasing proportion of revenue from high margin areas like service and parts and a lower proportion of revenue from new vehicles. So the 16.1% has benefited a little bit of that, which is why we still talk about ongoing pressure when there has been a bit of slowing in the rate of GP percentage decline. The converse for the future obviously applies, which is as new car revenues go up, there will be a little bit of revenue mix impact as well. Just a little.
Got it. No, that's super helpful. And then just maybe one last one from me.
Sorry to kind of hop on the new side, but I guess just in terms of supply more broadly, you guys are kind of still talking about elevated supply out there. I guess as you kind of speak to your OEM partners, maybe even some of your counterparts, how do you think your brand partners are looking to balance market share, supply, and profitability going forward? Obviously, there's a bunch of fluid dynamics, but the last six months, maybe last 12 months, is probably a taste of more of what's normal than the post-COVID uplift in profitability for the entire industry. As we kind of get into that new normal and some of that has started to flow through not just dealer results, but also OEM results, how have those conversations with your OEM partners changed?
How has their attitude towards market share, supply, and profitability here in Australia changed? Yeah, any color there would be super helpful.
I could probably take that one. I think it comes back to what I mentioned earlier in terms of one of the strengths of Peter Warren Group, and I'm sure also many of our colleagues in the industry. We have very good relationships with OEMs. We have very direct conversations with our OEM partners about the situation, and we're very transparent and open book. When we look at our performance and we look at the impact of what we've had to do with oversupply, bearing in mind that a lot of our suppliers have a long lead time in production to arrival, that is being corrected as best as it can be by OEMs.
Obviously, they have got pressure as well from their head offices in terms of production. We all have to make sure that we have the right balance of supply and demand. I think what is coming through is new product that is fresh and appropriate for the demand mix, if you like. That takes time. That is why we are cautious in our sort of outlook in terms of how quickly that will improve. It is very much an open topic with us and the OEMs going forward. I think, Drew, anything?
Just the only thing to add to that is, like many dealers, we have a good relationship with providing feedback to the OEM, and they adjust their production orders based on what we can tell them about customer demand. The amazing thing in the Australian industry at the moment is the changing nature of consumer demand.
You can see one of the slides shows the graph of hybrid demand increasing. They see that happen, and they look to modify their production. You know what? In 12 months' time, it'll probably change again. It is a tricky industry at the moment, but we work closely.
Got it. Thanks, guys. That's super helpful.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Sarah Mann with MA Financial Australia.
Morning, guys. First question for me is just, I guess, on the GP margin comment about potential for new car margins to kind of remain under pressure in the second half.
Just wondering if you can give us any color around what some of kind of the management initiatives you're undertaking or have undertaken already in the first half that could kind of offset that in the second half?
Yeah, I'll say about a few, and Andrew will probably pitch in with his commentary as well. First of all, inventory management is very high on our list in managing the margins. That involves, first of all, careful ordering of vehicles coming in, making sure we're not over or supplied on particular models, which are softer on demand, and also not oversupplied in particular brands. That's a big item.
Swapping cars with other dealers, clearing cars during marketing campaigns that are funded by OEMs and fully participating in those, and really setting our business up for success in this area with having targets for our teams and performance managing on a side-by-side basis. That is the new car area. In terms of overall margin, obviously, we're pushing the higher margin revenue streams and having some success in service, parts, finance, etc. As I touched on earlier, ensuring that we get a high, what we call, pool of gross across the sale of a car. That is the gross profit from the aftermarket, from the financing, and potentially even from the used car trading as well. We have had quite a bit of success, as we've talked about, in driving those like-for-like revenue streams. You've seen one of our slides on that.
We are really making good inroads on our inventory management. Andrew, anything else you want to add?
Not too much. No, I think I was going to mention exactly that swapping. With the number of our brands, we have locations across the country. We have the benefit of looking at our pool of stock as well, apart from swapping with other dealers. We also have the efficiency of swapping with our own brother and sister businesses across the country to match stock to customer demand. I think I mentioned it a little bit earlier as well, but it is about sort of active forward planning. What is coming through the pipeline? What have we got in terms of our ordering profile and matrix going forward?
How does that match to our loyalty metrics in terms of actively mining our database to ensure we can proactively approach customers?
Makes sense. Thank you so much. The other question is a broader one, but you've kind of alluded to how the market conditions are really evolving at the moment with new Chinese OEMs coming into the market. How do you think about your portfolio mix in this regard? I guess the follow-up question to that as well is, are the economics of a Chinese brand franchise much different from the incumbent brands that you already work with?
I mentioned it earlier in terms of this is very much a measured approach.
When we talk about potentially underperforming sites or even brands and new entrants, we have a legacy of a number of brands that we are enjoying a very, very long and will enjoy a very, very long relationship with. Here, we're talking about some minor adjustments where it might make sense. Really, then it's about consistently offering the right sort of mix of product to the Australian consumer because it doesn't really matter about what we want or with full respect the OEMs want, it's what the customer wants. There is very much an appetite there for us to look at that. There are obviously discussions happening around that, but it is a measured approach. That's the first thing. We will do that in a very careful way and do it in the right way.
Importantly, when we do that, we are utilizing existing assets. Existing showrooms or existing sites with a low capital investment required. Actually, it is a very efficient startup operation. In terms of the metrics or the trading terms, they are described as being rather traditional, in fact, in terms of a margin model. Therefore, I think could offer good financial benefit going forward with the right price and the right level of margin as long as we get what we believe would be the right level of turnover.
Excellent. That is really helpful. The last one for me, and sorry if this has already been asked, just M&A outlook, given more challenging market conditions, does that throw up more better-priced acquisitions? If so, I guess how are you thinking about that in the current market?
Yeah, no, I mentioned before, Sarah, but for us, it's never off the agenda. I think it's always about having a measured sort of view to what comes across our table. I think without saying there's anything on the table at all right now, there would be many partners in what is still quite a fragmented marketplace thinking about the market. That's where I believe Peter Warren Group has a very, very strong competitive advantage in terms of our size, scale, and opportunity.
Great. Thanks very much. Appreciate the time.
Our next question comes from Greg Hoffman with Hoffman Capital.
Thanks, guys. My question's already been answered.
Thanks, Greg.
Thanks, Greg.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll hand it back to Mr. Doyle.
T hank you very much, Kayleigh, for that and for organizing today.
Thank you, everyone, for your time, for dialing in and to listen to our plans and our results. Thank you very much to the Peter Warren team and to my management team for their very, very strong efforts over the last six months, especially. Thank you also to our OEM partners and friends and for everything they've done for us over this period. Of course, thank you very much to our ongoing shareholders for your support and ongoing support. We appreciate it. We look forward to continuing to drive the performance of the business and coming back to report in the coming months on that performance. Thank you very much for your time and have a great weekend ahead.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.