I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Grant Webster, CEO and Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Kaylee. Really appreciate that. Thank you, everybody, for your time, and welcome to the FY24 annual results presentation for THL. You know, I've just been introduced. So Grant Webster, CEO of THL. I am here today with Cameron Mathewson, our new CFO, Steven Hall , our Deputy CFO, and Amir Ansari is here as well in his role of Leader of IR. I'm gonna move through the presentation, as always, at a reasonable pace today. We'll skip several slides, making sure that we leave plenty of time for Q&A towards the end of the meeting. So let's go straight through to slide four, the executive summary. As well understood, our underlying profit after tax was within the guidance range at NZD 51.8 million. Statutory net profit of NZD 39.4 million included the well-flagged NZD 12.4 million impairment for the goodwill attributable to the UK and Ireland divisions.
Pleasingly, we hit record EBIT results for New Zealand Rentals and Sales, Action Manufacturing, and the New Zealand tourism businesses. We're very pleased as well to continue to have strong confidence in our balance sheet, and accordingly, have declared a final dividend of NZD 0.05 per share, taking us to NZD 0.095 for the full year. We continue to grow our fleet and have expectations for growth in the coming year. We note we very clearly that our returns on funds employed declined, but that was reflective of the economic situation. Despite the operating conditions for the coming period, as I just mentioned, we do expect to see an increase in our underlying NPAT for FY 2025 compared to FY 2024, but I would note that it is too soon to say exactly what that number will be.
And we will continue to review when we are likely to re-provide any particular guidance. Given the prevailing economic conditions, it's also clear that to achieve the 100 million net profit after tax goal in FY26 is unlikely, and so we've removed that timing. But we remain absolutely steadfast in the belief that we have the necessary components, and will advance towards this goal as tourism rebounds further and the general economy improves. We'll skip through to slide seven on return on funds employed. We know this is a critical metric for our business. We remain focused on delivering a higher than 15% return on funds employed for several periods to account for these lower periods, making sure that we are delivering an average above WACC return over the long term.
When you look at the slide, it is easy to ask the question: Can we really see a 50% improvement in the group result moving forward? My answer is absolutely yes. When you look at the New Zealand Rentals and Sales division achieving 22%, and you look at the Action Manufacturing and Tourism numbers also achieving outstanding results, you can see that we do have the core ingredients for success, and we know how to make this happen in this business and industry. We take some lessons into the other markets that we operate, and we make the changes that we know we need to make. Our global systems, our accountability to people to hold them to achieve the results, and our product knowledge will ensure that those changes we make deliver to our future goals.
I'm now, early in the piece, gonna pass over to Cameron to talk through the capital situation, our banking, and depreciation rates. Welcome, Cameron.
Thank you, Grant. We are pleased to have recently refinanced our banking facility with ASB and Royal Bank of Canada joining our long-term partners, Westpac and ANZ, in the syndicate, which has increased from NZD 250 million to NZD 475 million as we look to further optimize our funding between uncommitted asset financing and bank debt. Our process was well received and was oversubscribed, both in terms of participants and volume. This level of engagement resulted not only in greater capacity, but also better covenants, improved pricing, and extended security, with tranches extending out to four years. With this facility effective from 15th August, we've already started to draw down on it. Moving forward to capital management, THL has demonstrated ability to manage capital. Being able to avoid a raise during COVID is one such example.
Debt has risen over the course of the year to continue to regrow our rental fleet, and we also have higher retail sales and inventory. Referring to my initial point, this growth has been carried out in a controlled manner that has maintained appropriate leverage ratios, particularly in the current macroeconomic environment. THL will continue to manage its capital in a dynamic manner as we balance growth within whatever prevailing conditions require. Looking forward at CapEx. Gross CapEx has increased marginally in FY 2024 as we continue to regrow fleet, and pleasingly, proceeds from ex-fleet were higher than prior year. In response to overall economic conditions, moving forward into FY 2025, we expect fleet CapEx to be lower than each of the past two years as we respond to excess retail inventory levels, and in return, firm up utilization on existing fleet. Onto dividend.
As Grant mentioned earlier, we are pleased to be able to declare a final dividend of NZD 0.05 per share. Takes our full FY24 dividend to NZD 0.095 per share. This represents a 5.3% cash yield for New Zealand shareholders or 7.4% when taking into account imputation. With Australia currently in a position of tax losses, there is no franking credits for Australian shareholders. The dividend reinvestment plan continues to apply with a 2% discount available. Next, moving on to depreciation. Real depreciation rates, or RDRs, are a key metric for THL, as they represent how well we recover the purchase cost of a vehicle upon sale, and thus remove complexity as the vehicle moves through rentals and into sales.
RDRs have been excessively low in recent years, as motor homes have achieved abnormally high sales margins, and as such, we have not been reporting them. However, as conditions normalize, we have resumed this reporting. Looking forward, we expect RDRs for New Zealand and Australia to be below historical norms due to a greater portion of ex-fleet vehicles being sold through our own retail dealerships and the ongoing realization of manufacturing synergies. We review our accounting depreciation rates annually to ensure earnings are appropriately apportioned between rentals and sales. And at a total THL level, we expect depreciation costs to increase in FY 2025. It's important to note that these annual depreciation rate changes do not affect the lifetime earnings of a vehicle, and as such, we encourage investors to use RDRs when assessing our efficiency in purchasing and selling fleet. Back to you, Grant.
That's great. Thanks, Cameron. Now I'd like to talk through the merger synergies and cost efficiencies. It's very clear to us that we still have a strong definable advantage in THL through these cost efficiencies and merger synergies, despite the challenging economic conditions. We are performing above our targets. We're not immune to the inflationary pressures over the last three years, but we're certainly in a position where we can positively absorb them relative to others in the market. Fleet costs are certainly continued to be an area of focus for the business, and pleasingly, fleet costs going into FY 2025 are decreasing, which clearly benefits to a small degree, FY 2025, but more importantly, it provides a good foundation for reduced costs into future years, depreciation and interest.
What is clear is that it's become more and more challenging for us to assess and determine what exactly is a synergy and what's a standard cost out item. That's purely through the course of time. When you think about our modeling for the synergies being completed in twenty twenty-two, FY twenty-three, it's lots of things have changed across the business. So we now focus on a cost out opportunity, which we think puts us in a far better position. We've got the benefit of the synergy models that we did, the direction that they provided us, but we're more able to more accurately assess our current day performance against costs in the current economic environment.
So the key focal point for us in terms of this new cost-out approach will be fleet and fleet costs, procurement, everything from living equipment through to electricity, duplication across the business, which still exists, and we're moving out through technology, insurance, and a whole lot of other operating costs in the rentals divisions. A simple example being relocations, as we look at more fleet efficiencies and bringing the systems closer and closer together across the business. Moving on to the divisional reviews. It's great to see the New Zealand rentals and sales hit a record result. We've got a strong rentals return in terms of the total number of hire days. We still have growth available. We've noted, though, that that growth rate is slowing into calendar 2025. To be fair, the winter business domestically has been slower than expected, as have the Australian Trans-Tasman visitor numbers.
Overall, the New Zealand business has managed well in this economic environment. We do see growth in vehicle sales moving forward with the two additional sites that we have in Palmerston North and in Hamilton, and sometime, probably later quarter three of this financial year, we will move to the new Waitomo site near the Auckland Airport. It's a really exciting opportunity for us. We'll have group support with operations together, which has been a long-held desire finally fulfilled. We'll have an incredible customer offering for rentals, for sales, and for service. On top of that, we've got a great opportunity for us to connect with local iwi, Te Āti Awa, Te Ākitai Waiohua, and Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua. These new locations all make our direct sales business in New Zealand much stronger and reinforce our leadership position in the market.
Our belief in New Zealand is strong. We'll continue to invest as the conditions warrant it. Moving to Australia. The rental revenue in Australia is flat, primarily due to the non-tourism revenue that existed in the prior corresponding period. Non-tourism does continue to be a focal point. We do see that there will be more opportunities in the future, but it is cyclical with events. We're growing our relationships, and we're growing our position in this market for those future opportunities. We would note, as we've mentioned in May, that domestically, rentals wasn't as strong as what we expected, and the international shoulder season wasn't what we expected post-summer. Forward bookings are positive, but again, the growth rate isn't at the same rate as it has been over the last couple of years.
The retail business in Australia was tough, we know that, and it will continue to be tough in FY25. We're doing reasonably well with used motorized ex-rental fleet, but have seen margins in all categories squeezed. So our key focal points for this area of the business: we need to adjust our stock levels and bring those down, and that is in train and working effectively. We want to see systems alignment across the business, and we have a single dealer management system entering into the business in this financial year in Australia. That's gonna give us much more timely transparency and influence over exactly what we're doing with stock and pricing right across the group. We're updating our product range. We're adjusting our product range from a cost perspective, and we're ensuring that we've got really strong leadership in every one of our locations.
Manufacturing in Australia has also had some significant improvements in what I consider a very short period of time. Action Manufacturing have joined the business. We're aligning our people, our systems, and our processes. What we've seen is quality improvement, speed of build improving. We've seen greater efficiency through new investments in equipment, and we've seen in inventory reductions as well. Now, this will all flow through to an improvement in our RDR for Australia moving forward for rentals, and a reduction in warranty costs for retail, and improvement in our brand position across the market. Moving on to the USA, there's no doubt that the result is disappointing and, quite frankly, unacceptable. It's fair to say that it has been a very tough market, and that's well evidenced by commentary from other publicly listed operators in the RV sector.
However, we need to continue to change, and we've taken a number of actions starting from January this year. We have refocused the business on domestic revenue more, and are achieving some real success in that space. We're investing in alternative revenue streams, non-tourism opportunities, and again, winning and refocusing the business in that direction. And we've got a rejuvenated retail sales team, and they are performing in what is a challenging, challenging market. There's more still to do. Both the USA and Canadian businesses have clearly had some very high priced vehicles over the last two years, and we are clearing those particularly high price model year 2023 units, which have seen excessively depressed sales margins. From a rentals perspective, this high season has improved on the previous year, but sales still remains concerning. But we're starting to see the mid-market price vehicles starting to stabilize.
Again, like we've seen in some other markets, we're starting to see some price reductions in fleet available from manufacturers, and that will ultimately flow through to better rentals returns and better retail opportunities. We're very pleased to see Kate Meldrum take up the role of North American Chief Operating Officer. I'd have to say, in visiting the market a couple of times recently, the business is building very positively, and it's in a good place for recovery. We've got strong expectations for a significantly improved result in FY 2025. However, it's gonna be at least FY 2026 before we deliver our ROE expectation, our ROE result above our 15% expectations. Canada. The Canadian business has a return on funds of 8.3%.
However, if you take into account the acquisition accounting adjustment, it would be just over 10%, but clearly still below our expectations. The sales business has again been a struggle in Canada, below our expectations, albeit an increase in RV sales on the prior year. FY25 will still be a struggling year for the Canadian business, again, as we transition our fleet from the higher priced vehicles to lower priced vehicles, also change out our core fleet management system, but we do have confidence in the future. The North American synergies appear very real, and they will be realized and continue to grow over the coming years. Inherently, Canada has strong demand from a rental perspective, and it is going to be one of the true beneficiaries of the global efficiencies from our global system development. The opportunities here are very real.
Once we see a full fleet rotation, we will see a significant improvement in return on funds employed, and it should be noted that this is the one jurisdiction which has had an increase in depreciation rates, which were particularly low historically. Going through the hard stuff, UK and Ireland, another concerning result, and payback is clearly disappointing, particularly given the investment to acquire the remaining 51% of the Just Go business just before the merger with Apollo in late 2022. A post-investment review is being completed, but through that process, we would note that the largest change in the valuation was actually in the cost of capital, which moved from just over 8% to just over 11% through that time. It seems in some ways that it's been a bit of a perfect storm for the UK business.
Vehicle supply remained an issue, with again, around two hundred vehicles not arriving in time for the high season, significant increase in insurance costs, some legacy vehicles which had excessive R&M and low sales value, and an increase in overhead costs. There is a path to a better future. We're working through the execution of that at this, at this time. Action Manufacturing had a great result. We are definitely seeing the benefit of the acquisitions over the recent period of time, and we're seeing the linkages with Brisbane, as we talked about before. We've got new product that the business is launching. We've got new suppliers that have been very effective, new technology, and we're clearly taking more market share in the heavy transport space.
Would note, however, that the heavy transport part of the business is going through a tough patch as we see long-haul transport operators in New Zealand pull back on capital expenditure for new fleet. We expect, based on our historical lessons, going back right through even the GFC, that this period of pullback in capital expenditure from customers will be no longer than twelve months. They need to renew fleet and will be back on the order books.... There are parts of this industry, the long-haul transport sector, that are saying to us that the current conditions are worse than the GFC and expected to last into, well into calendar year 2025 . Obviously, we're adjusting costs and our approach appropriately. The tourism business had a record profit result.
Waitomo still isn't at pre-COVID levels from a visitor number, but we are getting a better profit result, obviously, so we're doing more with less. We see growth in tourism in the coming year, clearly at a slower rate than we've had over the last two years. GSS costs, look, there is a decent movement there. There are transaction costs, some changes in recharges which skew the result, but there was some inflation, increases in there as well. Let's quickly move on to the outlook. So just reiterating what we said before, despite the operating conditions in the coming period still being uncertain, we do expect an increase in underlying net profit after tax in FY 2025 when compared to the prior year. Our current rental forward bookings demonstrate year-on-year growth in hire days within our key markets, New Zealand, Australia and North America.
The booking intakes in recent weeks indicate that the recovery is slowing, with potential impact in the rentals for the calendar year 2025. Clearly indicates that it may take longer than initially expected to return to pre-COVID levels, and that clearly aligns with broader industry feedback we see and that broader sentiment. Fleet purchases and production for 2025 have been adjusted accordingly, with lower capital expenditure planned. It's important for us to reiterate that these headwinds we see as very much cyclical and associated with a wider economic downturn rather than any structural change for the RV industry. We've got a positive long-term outlook, and we believe we're well positioned. We are the global leader in RV rentals. We've got opportunities for synergies, cost reduction, supported by a balance sheet that is strong and strong capital management disciplines.
We continue to be focused on return on funds employed, and we recognize that the returns from the USA, UK, Ireland, and Canada divisions in FY 24 are unacceptable. Addressing the Northern Hemisphere is a key focus for management, and while we expect return on funds employed in 25 for these divisions to remain below our 15% target, the changes we've implemented should lead to future improvements, particularly in the way that we bring those North American businesses more closely together. Our future impact goal has been covered, and as previously noted, it's a case of not now, but we have confidence that we will achieve this goal. The assumptions that we detailed earlier in May still stand true. So the summary for THL today, from my perspective, as I said, we're a strong business, continued focus on managing capital and balance sheet position.
We've had excess fleet in FY24, which impacted the result because we didn't achieve our rentals and sales expectations, but it provides us with an opportunity to be more capital efficient moving forward. And we should not underestimate the future benefits, synergies, and cost out from our global systems approach. Real simple example to leave you on with that: Canada is the last destination for our Motech system to be implemented. From here, all our hardware enhancements are global. If we beta test something in one region, rather than it benefiting, say, 300 or 400 thousand hire days, it can be applied across five jurisdictions, getting five times the benefit. We've got great crew, and the vast, vast majority of them are moving forward at an enormous speed, dealing with change and accepting the challenges.
As I said in the integrated annual report, throughout my tenure, I've continued to be amazed at how THL responds to challenges and changes in a way that creates more opportunities for growth, growth for crew, for customers, for our footprint, for financial returns, and our global position in this industry. We've come off a record high, and we enduring a decent fall, but we've adapted, and we are responding with passion and energy and a commitment to deliver. We are in a positive place. We're shortly gonna open up for questions. However, with Cameron having joined the business a few months ago, I thought it was a really good opportunity for him to provide just his initial insights and views on the business. So Cameron, I'll pass over to you, and then Kaylee will come back to you for Q&A.
Thanks very much, Grant. Across the hundred days or so I've been on board, the thing I notice every day is that THL is a business that never settles. It's constantly evolving, whether it be the implementation of common digital platforms that Grant's referred to throughout this meeting or the dynamic capital management, the business is always pushing forward. Underlying this is a culture of merged THL, which stitches together common behaviors such as teamwork and speed to outcome. Across the business, there are crew members with substantial tenure and deep operational knowledge. It translates the complexity of THL's vertically integrated business model into a competitive advantage. As I mentioned earlier, the discipline of capital management on a large scale is a core strength of THL, with our ROFE measure part of the everyday vocabulary of the business.
Managing through COVID without a capital raise and also the support of the banks for our recent refinancing are examples of the skill that THL has in this discipline. From my perspective as a new starter, there are a few signs of ineffectiveness as a result of the merger of two established businesses, with which were brought together with pace and during a very difficult time. The synergies generated from this merger are evident, as are the further opportunities not yet captured, as we continue the likes of our North American plan and our ways of working efficiency initiatives.
The downgrade in May was disappointing, but it's obvious that THL is an organization that is quick to front-foot issues, and THL demonstrated this when we were one of the first to disclose the impact on our expectations, caused largely by the sudden fall in consumer confidence. As I look forward, we are further building and refining our planning mindset and tools across the short, medium, and long term, particularly in relation to the interplay between medium-term fleet decisions and the more short-term market and economic dynamics, such as those we face today. Thank you, Grant.
Thanks, Cameron. Kaylee, we'll head over to you for questions from those on the call.
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 Andy Bowley with Forsyth Barr.
Thanks, operator. Good morning or good afternoon, guys. A few questions from me, the first of which is around the near-term outlook. And I recognize, Grant, you've provided some commentary on a market-by-market basis and some of those comments around forward bookings. But can you give us a sense of how you see the RevPAR outlook on or in each market for FY 2025 at this stage, please?
Look, to be fair, Andy, I think we've given the best commentary that we can at this point in time. We considered what was right to release to the total market, and we've put that out there. Probably nothing further to add on that right at this point in time.
Not even on a kind of a broader group basis, in terms of how you see broader RevPAR, aggregate across the group for the year ahead?
All right. The way to interpret the commentary that we've put out there is that we've still got hire days growth, and we've talked about the fact that back in May, we talked about the fact that, you know, peak season yields are still coming back. The net of those, we still see RevPAR growth into FY 2025. And what we're saying is calendar 2025 is just that growth rate certainly looks like it's slowing. I don't expect it to go backwards. And when you think about the scope that we've still got to get back to pre-COVID levels, I think the market will still absorb quite a bit more growth yet.
So, that's probably a slightly different way of wording the information that we've provided over this release and the previous one.
That's helpful. Thanks. Thanks, Grant. Maybe one for Cameron around the depreciation changes. You referenced in the presentation that you are making some changes in FY 2025. Now, historically, we've had quite a gap between the RDRs and actual depreciation rates. I just wonder if you could give us a sense of how the changes will impact the difference between RDRs and actual depreciation rates over time, relative to what you've reported historically, and forgetting the last, you know, few years in light of the inflationary impacts.
I think I sort of stated, Andy, that we're looking at efficiencies and, you know, and how we procure and manufacture. And also, you know, better return from our retail network, and as such, that should improve historic rates that we've seen. So we're positive in terms of continuing to push forward in that space. And, you know, from a broader perspective, as Grant mentioned, we still see opportunity in the business to capture more efficiency, synergy, as we continue to implement, you know, our various strategies.
Yeah. The thing I'd just probably add to that, 'cause obviously I've been here a little bit longer than Cameron. So Andy, those differences when you go back pre-COVID, so depreciation and real depreciation rates are probably going to be closer than they were then. Acknowledging Cameron's point that we don't currently expect to get back to the height of those previous RDRs, because we are seeing inherent efficiencies, as he talked about, in our build and retail percentage.
You know, I guess actual depreciation rates are gonna be coming down faster than RDRs relative to pre-COVID. Is that a fair summation? I guess what I'm getting at here is, are we closing the gap between net realizable value of fleet and net book value?
Yes. This is-
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Great. So, look, maybe the last question from me. Grant, you talked about the full fleet rotation in Canada providing some benefits-
Mm.
And similar commentary in the U.S. Just to clarify what you mean there, are we talking about that? That's just the higher priced 2023 vehicles, or is it related to vehicle type with suboptimal product mix in the broader North American market?
Really good, really good question. Thank you for that. So A, it's the high-priced vehicles in model 2023, absolutely. I would reword. I don't think it was necessarily suboptimal purchasing before. It's relative to the, as we've talked about for the last 12 months, the detail that we've gone into in creating a essentially combined North American fleet. It's not entirely combined, but just working through every single vehicle type across both jurisdictions, looking at exactly what the bill price has been from different manufacturers, what the content has been in those vehicles, whether we can get a return on that content, and maximizing that. But it ends up being substantial.
And the realization of that is over a number of years, I'd imagine?
Correct. Over three years.
Yeah. Brilliant. Thanks, guys.
No, thank you, Andy.
Your next question comes from Grant Lowe with Jarden.
Oh, hi, team. Just around the refinancing side of things, just starting with that. So you called out at the May update that there was, I think June 2024 was sort of a pinch point, if we wanna call it that, but then improving from there. You've obviously been through a refinancing now. Can you just sort of update us as to where things sit relative to covenants, and whether those have changed or otherwise?
We've said that we've got more funds, we've got better terms, which you can take as more favorable covenants and better pricing. And that doesn't change the point that our metrics are still improving anyway. So a really good job by Cameron, Stephen, and Bruce.
That's great. And in terms of... Obviously, you haven't given net CapEx guidance this year. I appreciate the sales environment is difficult to sort of assess at this early stage of the year. Do you have what, what are the you can say around the gross CapEx side of things, expectations? Obviously, you haven't called out, at least as far as I've seen, you haven't mentioned the 9,000 vehicles at the end of FY 2025 or less than 9,000. How should we think about that, the gross CapEx side of things for the year?
So similarly to the net, it's the same, same sort of reasons. So you would see, if you look in the financial statements, that we talk about the committed CapEx, and that's around NZD 160 million, around there, Amir? NZD 106 million . NZD 106 million , not NZD 160 million . I got the NZD 106 million right. NZD 106 million.
Yeah.
That obviously is way low, and we've got the North American fleet to come in. So, you generally expect gross CapEx to be less than last year, but we haven't given any indications of what that will be. In terms of the exact fleet numbers, I mean, that's a deliberate choice for us not to release those numbers at this point in time. It aligns with the fact-
Yeah.
That if you wanna look at fleet, that we still see growth. We just see that growth softening. We also have noted the fact that we think our fleet has been inefficient in the last 12 months because we didn't achieve quite the volumes of sales that we wanted, so you can see some efficiency coming in there as well. So basically, overall utilization of the fleet should be improving, so we just don't need to buy quite as much as we would've originally planned.
Yeah. Okay. And, and in terms of the closing net debt at NZD 466 million , I think, I think it was at half, where there was some timing, difference between,
Mm-hmm.
the spend and obviously delivery of vehicles
Yeah.
if I'm getting my dates right.
Mm.
Is there anything to call out at this stage, you know, across the balance date, in terms of timing or otherwise?
No, no. There are thereabout. And so out of all-
Yeah.
Out of all of that, when you take earnings and everything into account, net CapEx, the whole thing, you know, debt will move a bit upwards, but it's not gonna be a substantial move, certainly nothing like the last 12 months, obviously. It won't move dramatically in FY 2025.
Okay. That's great, and just last one from me around the May expectations that you've sort of set. You did touch on some of this in the various geography segments-
Mm.
But just coming back to that, you had a couple of useful slides in that pack in May. How would you sort of characterize the overall performance relative to your expectations, and I guess specifically around the ANZ? You had a slide on that with, I think it was, from memory, a NZD 13 million dollar impact on-
Mm
... on lower sales volumes, primarily.
Yeah, so we were broadly in line with our expectations for that last quarter. Yeah. Like, if I-
Okay
... started getting into detail, it's minor. It's not material movements. It's broadly in line, yeah.
Okay. Excellent. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Ben Wilson with Wilsons Advisory.
Thank you, and good morning, gentlemen, in Brisbane time. Just touching further on the Australian sales environment, just given that was a sort of a major part of the May update, firstly, maybe on the retail sales volumes in particular, your GP margins did fall, but you actually managed to increase your sales volumes there. Just wondering if you can give an update on how you're seeing retail sales demand unfolding in Australia?
So, by the numbers that we see, we think we have picked up some market share, but margins and pricing in the market continue to squeeze and continue to come down. So I think that summarizes sort of quarter four. Going into the next period, we've clearly indicated that we think it's still a very tough market, but you've also got in that sales volume, just remembering that we've got Camperagent in those numbers. So sort of on a same store basis, we were down. Camperagent was February, so we'll start to roll that over next half.
Yeah, thanks, Grant. And then just moving to the ex-rental sales side of things in Australia, your gross profit margin actually increased on last year. So is it a stronger sort of demand environment for the ex-rental, sort of more motorized vehicles?
No, it becomes a bit of a mix issue with that, Ben. So, we've obviously one of the things we said in May is that we will continue to push that ex-rental motorized fleet really hard, and a reminder, we said that we are confident that we will sell it at some point in time. And we're on track. We're selling it. We're continuing to move it in July and August. Again, some margin pressure on that to keep those vehicles moving, but we're still delivering those good margins out of it.
Thanks, Grant. And then just a last one from me. Just switching to the U.S., I saw Camping World, in their second quarter update, mention that they're ramping up their used vehicle stocking levels. So just wondering if you're seeing some stronger signs for ex-rental sales volumes off the back of that?
So, if you dive into the detail of what those dealers, including Camping World, are buying, they're looking at anything from a 2010 through to sort of a 2016, 2017, as being the primary price points that they're after. So on a motorized basis, they're targeting anything from a $39,999 up to a $49,999 unit. So it's not exactly where we're playing. We're obviously playing sort of 20 grand above that. We're at the model year 2022, 2023, 2024s. So at those really low price points, you know, towables, they're up there at $19,999 through to $29,999. That's where the market is playing at the moment. As interest rates come down, as the overall sort of pricing comes down, that will turn, change back again. So we are seeing some improvement.
June was a good month, but as we talked about in May, it's very, very wavy.
Mm-hmm.
So June was a good month, July, not as good. You know, we've gotta see how August closes out.
Thanks, Grant. That's helpful. That's all from me. Thank you.
Your next question comes from John O'Shea with Ord Minnett.
Good morning, Grant. Can you hear me okay?
Yeah, fine. Thanks, John.
Thanks for taking my questions. A couple from me. Obviously, the excess fleet and the, you know, the weakness in used vehicle sales, Is it a fair comment to say that the U.S. was seeing, you know, certainly, you know, light at the end of the tunnel there? And in contrast to that, you know, we're still... In Australia, would it be fair to say that we've got a fair way to go to sort of clear that excess inventory? I guess that's the first question: Do you think that's a fair summary?
I think, you're probably up to the minute, in terms of that commentary, because there's definitely some data that came out of the U.S. today, that sort of indicates that, you know, towable up there has started to recover, and motorized, the indicators you could definitely take out, are probably at the bottom.
Yep.
Or there or thereabouts. So I think you could make that comment based on industry data for the US, and I think your commentary for Australia is correct. I think there's still some pain to come. We have seen a number of small manufacturers go into liquidation in Australia, and some small dealerships go into liquidation, and some major larger manufacturers change ownership structures and merge with other entities in the last three months. So you can definitely see that it's impacting the industry.
Yep. Sure. Thank you for that. Now, at the same time, you mentioned you're starting to see a few signs of lower purchase costs from the manufacturing side.
Mm.
Do you think there will be further declines, or would you, given that the U.S. has kind of turned the corner, or turning the corner, in my view-
Mm.
Is it a situation here where you still got all the negative impact of the used vehicles flowing through, but not necessarily any benefit or relief from the purchase side? Do you think those declines you've seen in the prices of buying the vehicles are temporary, or do you think you'll see further reductions, or do you think... And what do you think about the purchase cost side?
So the purchase cost side, just to put it in context, certainly from third-party manufacturers, it's small single digit.
Yeah, absolutely.
2%-3.4%, kind of savings.
Yes, absolutely.
You're seeing the chassis manufacturers sort of hold price or go up one or two. So, it's small. I think... No, no one that I've talked to in the industry from a manufacturing perspective sees that there's any real benefit in discounting significantly to try and increase volume.
Yep.
They don't think it's gonna raise the price. They wanna wait to see interest rates drop, and broader demand grow. So they're not gonna get any overhead leverage by dropping price, so there's no value in them doing that. So they are passing through what I would consider as structural changes in price, so steel prices coming back down, aluminum, fiberglass, so forth, all those componentry elements coming back down for them.
Yep.
So that's what's being passed through, that sort of small digit perspective. So I think they'll hold, and I think there will be a little bit more to come into next year, but nothing like the magnitude that went up. I think the pricing generally is here to stay.
So you're kind of getting hammered both ways, right? You're having to pay more, but you're not getting anywhere near, the prices-
Totally
O n the used vehicles. Yep.
Well, yeah. Yeah, that's just the swing back from where we were getting the arbitrage the other way, so we had-
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yep.
Yep. And look, the final thing from me was maybe a slightly little bit of a comment rather than a question, but, on the rental side here, we're seeing a slowing from the peak in terms of domestic travel, and so that's really a cyclical factor. Do you agree with that? Obviously, the international travel side will be a reflection of a whole range of things inbound into Australia, but the domestic side, whether it be Australia or New Zealand, is purely a reflection of a moderation in that travel as we've come out of the pandemic. In other words, the levels that they reached in terms of the domestic travel were unsustainable and was always gonna slow.
Do you think that's a reflection of that, or is it more international demand being softer than you thought?
I think it's international growth rate is slowing, but domestically, completely agree that it's cyclical. And what the research that we've seen, and there's some of the big advisors out there who've done some interesting tourism reports recently, which reinforce the fact that, you know, those paying rent, those with mortgages are just hit that next point of pain, where tourism's being put on the back burner as well as the buying of vehicles and refurbishing homes, so forth and so on.
Yep.
Yep.
No worries, guys. Thanks very much for taking my questions.
Thanks, John.
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 Kieran Carling with Craigs Investment Partners.
Morning, guys. Thanks for the presentation. Can you provide some more color around the China procurement project for Action Manufacturing, and what sort of EBIT uplift that might be able to provide the division? And maybe also touch on what we can expect from the cost-out program that you've mentioned for FY25 and FY26.
Incredibly fair questions, incredibly appropriate questions. I'm not gonna dive into the detail on them but really, really, really good questions. So the cost-out program, we've given some indication of the areas that we'll focus on. We'll consider whether what the right sort of information is around that as we get to the annual meeting and see whether that's an appropriate point to release something or not. From a China perspective, again, gotta be careful around not giving away any competitive advantage or, or items, but we have spent quite a bit of time up there over the last twelve months and have been working with a large number of different suppliers and have a number of different projects underway in products that we are already putting into the market very shortly.
which I think are great quality, really good quality, much lower cost, really efficient from a lead time perspective and inventory management perspective. So, yeah, we see them providing really good benefit.
Okay, thank you.
We're just not advocating on an actual dollar value of that, sorry.
No, sure, that's okay, and I appreciate you've already given a bit of a steer on CapEx for FY 2025, but can you just tell us what you've assumed in terms of your vehicle sales, particularly in Australasia, for the year ahead, relative to what you've achieved in FY 2024 ?
So, again, you'd be wary of not giving too much information that, particularly that we haven't provided the market. I think, you know, we've said that it's still... You've gotta look at it by market. We've said that it's still a tough market. New Zealand, we've indicated that we should see growth in New Zealand, particularly with Palmerston North, Hamilton, and Waitomo here. So that we expect that growth, and we think we're in a strong position there. Australia, we've said it's gonna be tough and will remain tough. And North America is still a tough market, but depending on how that goes, we should see growth, should certainly see growth in the USA.
Okay, cool, and then I guess just a high-level one on your outlook statement to finish. You know, vehicle sales are still obviously very challenging. You've indicated there's gonna be some growth and higher days, but you know, yields are probably starting to slow. And we're gonna see some fairly limited fleet growth based on your CapEx guidance. So is it fair to say that the key drivers for your NPAT improvement year on year are just gonna be around the cost out and you know, a slightly higher rental fleet with yields kind of slightly up? Is that the right way to be thinking about it, or are there other kind of factors at play also?
So the nuance that I'd probably add to that is Andy's question around RevPAR. So we do see an improvement in that in FY25. In fact, all jurisdictions should see an improvement in that. United States, in particular, should see a really good improvement in that. Australia should see an improvement. So you've gotta look at the utilization, the yield, and then you've gotta weigh the fleet numbers on top of it. So we do expect fleet growth, just not at the rate that we've been seeing over the last two years. So yes, some fleet growth, some utilization improvement, those two things coming together, offsetting any yield, and then, yes, there's cost out opportunity on top of that as well.
Okay, great! And then just a quick follow-on to that question. You know, would you say that at a high level, again, kind of weighted towards the second half? Are you able to provide any sort of steer on where, how we should be thinking about NPAT in the first half of 2025 versus the first half of 2024?
I don't think there'd be any surprise, given the result in H2, that the growth in FY 25 is weighted to the second half.
Okay, cool. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. That's good.
Your next question comes from Vignesh Nair with UBS.
Hi, good morning, team. Just a couple of clarifications more than anything. You know, just following on from the previous question, on RevPAR growth, are you able to just dissect that across, you know, utilization and yield? You mentioned sort of growth year on year. So can you maybe just give a guide on what the quantum of, you know, utilization growth would be versus the yield contraction?
Amir, I'm sorry, will shoot me if I give that because he's pushed so hard for us to give the RevPAR numbers, which I think make a lot of sense and work for us from several different perspectives. So if I break it down, then we're just back to yield and util. Happy to give the general guidance, as I just did, that we see a decent utilization opportunity in the business, and that comes from, as I said before, we ended up being less efficient than we should have in fleet in most jurisdictions, FY 2024, as a result of primarily vehicle sales not being at the levels that we thought.
Harder to adjust your purchases immediately, and the growth rate in rentals has not been quite what we expected. More to the utilization improvement than yield within that RevPAR. Hope that helps.
So, so is it fair to say that you're not currently discounting all that much to keep utilization up, if yields aren't contracting all that much, or, you know, provided that's the base case assumption?
Look, it's slightly different by period of the year and by jurisdiction. We indicated in May that yields... We gave an indication of where yields were generally heading by market, and there isn't any substantive change to that commentary at this point in time.
Okay, that's very helpful. And the second point, on each of the regional slides, you've given kind of what the total RV sales would be under normal operating conditions.
Mm.
You know, but based on your sort of view over the next sort of one to two years, you know, firstly, when do you get to normal operating conditions? And kind of, is the hundred million NPAT target, I suppose, contingent on those volumes of RV sales?
The 100 million target definitely includes those kind of volumes within it. Those volumes aren't again, if you look at them, they're not ridiculous numbers. But you would be asking me to say exactly what the GDP growth will be in each of our jurisdictions, what the interest rate will be in each of our jurisdictions, and dot, dot, dot. So I can't give an indication of exactly when, because we are definitely seeing that it's the slowdown is so closely related to the economic uncertainty.
So it's fair to say, internally, you're thinking that's beyond FY 2026, given that's when you think you'll get to 100 million?
I don't know. Well, no, 'cause there's a number of factors. I mean, the biggest difference to FY 2026 is obviously the total fleet number. We're not gonna be at the previous total fleet number in FY 2026 that we were previously. So that's the biggest change there. We could achieve all these numbers in FY 2026 That's possible.
Okay, and I suppose the final question, just on the mix between ex-fleet and retail, specifically in Australia. Is it, you know, is it two thousand two hundred, I suppose, sales kind of a reasonable level into 2025, or do you expect growth on that number? Or just kind of trying to get a steer on what an appropriate kind of retail sales number is, given that's jumped around a little bit.
Look, given that we've said that it's still a tough market, I think we're really seeing sort of flat to some growth.
Okay. That's, that's very helpful. Thanks, guys.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Webster for closing remarks.
No, all, all I want to say is, thank you very much, everybody, for your time. We look forward to catching up with as many people as we can over the coming week. We've got lots of, lots of catch up. So, thank you, Kaylee, for hosting us, and we'll talk to everybody shortly. Thanks.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.