There are just some significant shifts going on in terms of the composition of that new car market, and obviously it's the Chinese brands that are really making a big difference here. I was saying to someone earlier, the pie is essentially the same size. It's just being cut up into infinitely small bits. S ome challenges in that new car space for sure.
In terms of the business divisions, one of the key messages at our Investor Day was that we have great businesses, but they are even better together. With the level of integration, data analytics, the lead generation that's happening across the group, there is no doubt that those businesses are much stronger for being part of this group.
What we are doing is continuing to build out and perfect this used car platform that we've put together. Just starting on the left, very simple, but we want to sell someone a car, we want to lend them the money to buy that car, we then want to protect that car through our insurance products, we want to look after and maintain that car through the life of that ownership, and then at the end, we want to buy that car back off that person and put them back to the beginning again and sell them another car. It's pretty straightforward, right?
I just think it's worth explaining why we are doing what we're doing. To put it simply, we're just trying to take a little bit of margin through each part out of those steps and to have as many customers as possible using every one of those components as well.
I'm not going to spend too long here reviewing what we did last year, but we were obviously very pleased with a record year in the auto retail division and, as I mentioned before, what turned out to be a pretty tough first half and a much stronger second half as the economy in New Zealand kicked back into gear.
As we called out in May, trading has definitely been impacted by the Middle East conflict. We think this is short-term in nature, but selling diesel and larger engine SUV-type product has been very challenging, and the prices on those units have unsurprisingly dropped, and by some quite material percentages.
Our expectation is that this will improve, and we generally see an uplift through the spring and summer period, and we're hopeful we'll see that again. It's what we've typically experienced. What I do want to spend some time on is probably more about the medium-term kind of things that we're doing to keep growing our business, and that's really our branch expansion plans. We have six projects underway at the moment and another five opportunities that we are in various stages of negotiation around. You can see the top of that right-hand side there.
We're confident that our expansion pipeline is filling really, really nicely, and as we signaled at our Investor Day, we're targeting another 15 branches by FY 2031, which helps drive us towards that NZD 100 million profit target. As the slide says, there's no profit impact from those new branches in FY 2027. This is very much a build year for us.
We obviously made these purchases and got these deals in place. This is the year that we are digging in the ground and building and things like that to get them ready for FY 2028. We think this property ownership aspect of our business is largely overlooked by the market. I think as Grant mentioned before, owning properties for us is part of this 100-year view. We are building up this really nice property asset that over time will grow in value and is just another value sort of accretion opportunity for our shareholders.
What I wanted to do was just quickly go through each of the projects that we have got on the go at the moment. Starting with a new Turners car site in Wiri. This was a property, I think it was our second property we bought, Aaron?
Yeah .
Yeah. Out on Roscommon Road. 10,000 sq m. We have been running a trucks and machinery branch there. When we first moved into that site, there was very little around us, actually, and it has all sort of grown as you would expect.
We think that is a great location now for a cars branch. Trucks and machinery move out to Drury, and we will have a cars branch there in the next financial year, and that will contribute another NZD 700,000 to our bottom line as a result of that. As you can see, a very high-profile site on Roscommon Road and very adjacent to the motorway and things, so I think that will work really well. That is what it will look like.
We have sort of essentially got the offices there already as part of the trucks and machinery operation, but the processing site at the sort of left-hand side of that picture is new. This is another exciting project we have got in Tauranga. This will be our second branch in Tauranga, so really extending our footprint in that important geography for us. It is in Greerton. Can't quite see from that picture, but it is very close to sort of the township level. It has got a roundabout sort of very adjacent on that bottom right-hand corner of the site.
Quite a big project for us in terms of there is an old RSA there, and we are in the process of, well, it is demoed now. This is what the site currently looks like. Quite a big project in terms of what needed to happen to get that site ready for building.
We think it's going to be a great location for us. It's a very good catchment area. That's the sort of site looking what it will look like eventually when we've finished building. Another exciting project happening there. Whanganui is another new location for us. We've got good experience now in terms of how we enter these new markets. This will be the smallest catchment area, Mark, that we've been in, right?
Yeah.
C atchment area is sort of 50,000- 60,000 people. You can see again, it's a very high-profile site. We're well advanced there. I think the likelihood is we'll probably have that sooner than Q1 FY 2028, but we'll see how the project sort of evolves. We've had to demo a couple of residential houses and an old restaurant that was on the site.
Again, contractors are working very well there and kind of running ahead of time, so we're going well on that one. A more recent one that we've purchased is a new site in Hastings, and this has been an existing new car dealership that's been out of business for a little bit. We've bought the site. Y ou can see there, it's a kind of corner site. We're demoing the buildings on that right-hand corner, in the process of consenting and getting things ready for works to start.
This will be the second site for us in the Hawke's Bay, which is something that we've been targeting for a while. Just had to find the right place, and we think we've definitely got the right place now. That's what the site will look like.
We keep the existing building on the left-hand side there and essentially create a big yard to present the vehicles. T hat, again, will be a very good catchment area for us. We've also just this year bought some new land in Hamilton. This is on Te Rapa Road. It was land owned by Foodstuffs. There's a New World next door, and this was excess land. This is a replacement for our last of our big super sites that was on Avalon Drive down there.
We're currently in a lease there, and we were pretty keen to get to a new site. A bit like Christchurch where we had to sort of put the bits of the puzzle in place, this is the first bit of the puzzle for us. A gain, very good opportunity for us down there.
To be honest, in a much more higher profile location than we are now. T hat's good. That's underway, and that's what that site will look like eventually. You can see a very consistent kind of look and feel now where you have the processing shed at one end and then the office space on the right. Obviously, it's very blue. We love blue. This is the new home for our trucks and machinery business, so the one that's relocating from Wiri. This is further down on State Highway 1 down in Drury. It's a lease site.
Again, the project running well ahead of time, and will be a very high-profile site for us running down the edge of the motorway there on the right-hand side as you're heading south. Looking forward to having that in place.
As you can see, lots of work going on in terms of those branch expansion plans. Marc Wells and the team doing a great job there. That is kind of auto. Moving on to finance, a very strong performer for us in FY 2026. One of three divisions that had a record profit. What I suppose I want to reassure people is that we are continuing to maintain our discipline around credit quality, and we have seen even further improvements in our quality metrics. That is a non-negotiable for us around growing this loan book.
This is probably the one highlight I would really like to flag with you today, is that it is this consistent growth that we are now getting out of finance. Finance is very much back into growth mode. We had strong growth over FY 2026, so the loan book was up 27% over that 12-month period.
In the first four months of this year, we have grown that a further 7.5% since the end of March. We have seen that momentum really continue, which is great. That loan book now almost, I think probably this month will hit through NZD 600 million, in total loan book, which is great. Good milestone to achieve. As you can see here, it is a slide we have shown before. Consumer arrears tracking at 2.1% in July against the industry figure of 5.2%, for auto loans.
The top red line is the auto loan industry in New Zealand. The blue line is our line. As you can see over time, those jaws are starting to open up. The industry gets higher and we get lower. This means we are outperforming the arrears in the broader market.
Absolutely validates our strategy of being focused on the quality end of the borrower market. I think the other really big benefit from focusing on that quality end, is that it delivers us great operating leverage. We are growing our loan book but having to add very few people to help service those customers. Because those customers are so reliable, because they stick to their commitments, and thus they are easy to serve. We can grow the loan book, but do not have to grow the number of people we have in the business. The upside for us is much, much greater.
On to insurance. Like auto retail and finance, insurance also had a record year of profit performance. Very stable and consistently performing division in the group. Our distribution networks are strategically important, and we are continuing to build out our digital direct capability as our additional growth channel. We have had good, strong premium growth across all our portfolios, and our dealer and finance broker partnerships are a key driver there.
In Turners Servicing and Repairs, we continue to get to gain traction in the servicing and repairs business. Our partnership with VTNZ, where we have integrated into their failed WOF process, and comms is starting to deliver repair bookings. We are focused primarily on the Auckland market there. It is still very much in its infancy, but we expect that to be a really good growth driver for bookings for servicing and repairs.
We have seen some good wins with small fleet owners and with one of Turners' major lease vendors, who now offer mobile servicing to their lease customers. We are starting to take bookings for those lease customers. We are really starting to see this integration thing working well.
Lastly, for credit management, FY 2026 debt referrals were constrained. We talked about this at the year-end because several of our large clients, essentially the banks, have been through these temporary holds on debt referrals as they undertake big system changeouts for their collections area. While they have been going through those system changes, they have not been referring debt to us. That is starting to come back on stream now.
As a result, revenue was down 17%, and because of that, segment profits were down 49%. You may recall that we also wrote down the goodwill on EC Credit by NZD 7.5 million at the year-end, and with that new intangible valuation reflecting just our more conservative future earnings forecast for this business.
So far, in FY 2027, we have seen all but one of those banks recommence their debt load, and we are seeing a really good improvement in profit performance in the first part of this financial year. Good to see those guys back on track. This is the latest data from credit bureau Centrix. New Zealand credit metrics have somewhat surprisingly continued to improve and are at their lowest level since 2021.
What this suggests to me is that people are much more aware of their credit scores and the impact of defaults that they might have. I think there is just a general broader awareness of credit scores now. I think what we are seeing is people actively acting conservatively by building savings buffers and keeping on top of their commitments.
Consumer behavior is being shaped by concerns around interest rates, unemployment, and political uncertainty, and the result is less spend on discretionary items. Consumers are being cautious rather than stressed, spending less, but staying on top of their financial commitments is our interpretation of this data. Just to round out the business stuff, our key message around funding is that our banks are being very, very supportive of this business.
Aaron and his team have done some great work over the last 12 months to improve our funding structures, and the result of that is we have been able to improve our pricing with the banks, they have increased our credit limits, and they have reduced the amount of capital that we require to support that funding.
Just to give you a quick example of that, we now have enough capital in Oxford Finance to grow that loan book by essentially another 50% to get it up to that sort of NZD 800 million level without adding any more capital in. We are very well-positioned with the banks. Okay, and then just to wrap up before I hand back to Grant. With the outlook, we thought a good way of showing this was to highlight what has changed and what has not changed since we last updated the market in May of this year.
First, to start with what has changed, obviously this conflict in the Middle East has persisted much longer than everyone expected it to. That has slowed New Zealand's economic recovery without any doubt, and it has dented consumer confidence.
Higher fuel prices have materially reduced demand for diesel and larger petrol engine vehicles, making the first half of FY 2027 a far harder trading environment than either of the two prior first halves. Although the team in auto retail repositioned inventory quickly, the effect on vehicle margins, so the cars that we own that we sell through the network, has been longer and larger than we anticipated in May. On top of this, we have had lower sales of ex-lease cars.
The reduction in market prices for diesel utes and petrol SUVs has reduced the levels of sales as those lease vendors just take time to adjust to the new market prices. This is an effect we have seen over the 20 years that Aaron and I have been involved in this business. We have seen this a number of times.
As prices come down, those lease vendors just take time to adjust. Consignment units sold are down 14% for the first four months of July. What I would just remind people about, though, that we still have those cars. We will sell them. It is just a timing issue, and they are already starting to adjust their prices more aggressively than we have seen them in the first three to four months of this year. We will still get to sell those cars.
Secondly, what has not changed? The diversification in this group continues to deliver earnings stability. Finance growth, so that is profit growth in finance, has more than offset the reduction that we have seen in auto retail profits. Group net profit before tax for April to July is 4% ahead of the same time last year.
We have got challenges, but we are still producing group profits ahead of last year. I think it is a great result given the conditions that we have been operating in. We have seen strong loan book growth continue at 7.5% since March, and arrears still tracking at very low levels despite the pressure on New Zealand consumers. Insurance and credit management are both broadly in line with last year. Most importantly, what has not changed is our long-term strategy.
We remain extremely confident and continue to work at pace on both our auto retail branch network expansion and our finance book growth opportunities. We are absolutely 100% confident in that strategy. What does that all mean? We continue to target NZD 65 million profit before tax in FY 2027.
You may recall that was our FY 2028 target, and we called out at the end of last financial year that we would achieve that a year earlier. We are still pushing very hard to achieve that number a year earlier. Without a resolution to the Middle East situation and the volatile swings in oil prices and a recovery in consumer confidence, sales of large engine vehicles and diesel product, we think are still going to be challenging. That creates some short-term uncertainty and some risk in achieving that NZD 65 million a year earlier.
What I would point out, though, is a faster recovery around that situation has the opposite effect. Consumers will be more confident, margins will improve, and so we get that opposite impact. We are just calling out that there is some risk at the moment.
I want to reiterate the short-term nature of this environment and that we fully expect strong earning growth momentum to return in FY 2028. Nothing has changed in management's conviction in that medium-term plan. Turners is tracking well towards its NZD 100 million net profit before tax target by FY 2031. Thanks very much, everyone, and I'll hand back to Grant now.
Thanks, Todd. At this time, if anyone would like to ask a question or make a comment about the presentations and the result. Ask any of us, by the way. Yeah.
Alan Best, shareholder and proxy holder for members of the New Zealand Shareholders' Association. I'm interested, and we recognize that this is fairly early days for the service side of the business. H aving been a manager in charge of services, I appreciate that there's some really specific challenges. First of all, maintaining a staff of reliable and qualified people to do that out and about type service. Secondly, operating within margin limits and management has a challenge to make sure that they do operate within those guidances.
Finally, there's a brand challenge always when you're operating in a service business because you're dealing with a very splintered market, as you have done with secondhand car sales. I wondered if you could comment a little bit on the structure and the challenges that you're overcoming with that particular business.
Yeah, sure. If I just touch on each of those. We don't typically have a challenge finding people. Most of the technicians are happy to get out of a workshop and have a bit more control over their day-to-day working life and being in a van and sort of moving around Auckland or Hamilton or Tauranga. They enjoy the variety rather than having some workshop manager be mean to them. That's not a challenge.
We are certainly looking to prove this model out, and our focus is really for Richard Wafer, who runs that business. He still owns half of the business with his co-founder. We really want to see him prove this Auckland market out first. W e're focused fully on that before we roll out to any more locations. The number one challenge is building demand and building awareness that having your car serviced and repaired in your driveway or at your work is an option. That is our challenge.
Okay.
Rod Robertson. That was a great presentation, very informative, and more than covered the only question that I really have, which was not in regard to this year's earnings, but that you have reaffirmed the five-year goals, aspirations of the company and that NZD 100 million profit before tax. You have already covered it very well. Anything additionally you would care to say about that?
Well, I do not know what to add, really, but we are trying really hard towards it, and when we set goals, we like to overachieve them as well. That is all I would add. Yeah.
Comments anyone?
Thanks, Rod.
All right. Seems to be all the questions. Okay. I would now like to move to the resolutions before the meeting. These were notified in the notice of meeting, and explanatory notes have been provided. Voting on each of the resolutions in the notice of meeting will be by way of poll. Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, the company's auditors, will act as scrutineers.
Please use the voting paper you received in the mail or were given when you registered for this meeting. If you do not have a voting paper, you will be able to request one from the scrutineers. Only shareholders, proxy holders, or corporate representatives of a shareholder may vote on today's resolutions.
Resolution one is to record the reappointment of Staples Rodway as auditors of the company and authorize the directors to fix the auditors' remuneration. Does anyone have any questions or matters for discussion on Staples Rodway? Alan? Yeah.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I think I am raising something that has already been answered partly by Todd. The NZSA, Shareholders' Association, has asked the question of the company about whether there is any appetite to put the audit business up for tender because it has rested with Staples Rodway for so many years without much change. It is important that we get an idea from you of the internal procedures, I suppose, that enable you to preserve that or to ensure, on behalf of shareholders, that there is sufficient independence of the auditor.
Just having one aside on that, too. I do remember that as a Shareholders' Association, we were very keen a few years ago to see that other auditors be entered into the race for auditing rather than simply follow the Big Four. We are very pleased that Staples Rodway is one of those that has come in to a larger and growing company on that matter. Could you make a specific comment on the internal audit procedures?
Yeah. We might pass that one on to Aaron, as he is the closest to that side of the business.
Thanks, Alan. Yeah, in terms of the appointment or ongoing appointment of Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, I think that we are comfortable as a group that there is appropriate auditor independence because they do follow strict partner rotation policies and guidelines as outlined by the FMA.
It is my understanding that Turners is one of their larger customers. What that means is that our audit file gets significant FMA scrutiny when FMA are reviewing the work of Baker Tilly Staples Rodway. I think where we value Baker Tilly in particular is that it does provide some diversity from the Big Four. They are extremely price competitive. They value our business.
We are equally comfortable that there are no issues with independence and, in particular, the heightened level, I would argue, of scrutiny that they get, us being one of their larger, if not largest, clients from the FMA should give our shareholders some comfort that auditor independence is being pretty strictly followed.
Thanks, Aaron. All right. We have someone down the back there. Barbara?
Do you still get price indications from the other auditors as to what they will charge?
We have not done a pricing exercise for a number of years, but it is pretty public information. You can see in an annual report what the price levels are for NZX50-listed companies, and that does give us a lot of comfort. We typically, we are pretty, well, not mean, but we are pretty disciplined around cost in this business.
No one else? Okay. Resolutions 2, 3. I should do the formal part here. I would like to move this motion. Do I have a seconder? Thank you. The next three resolutions are in regard to director elections for Matthew Harrison, Lauren Quaintance, and Antony Vriens. We believe that having...
And John Roberts.
Just when I was saying how good you were. Can't blame myself here. John Roberts. We believe that having directors with relevant industry, commercial, and governance skills is essential for the continuing success of the Turners Group. Continuity of people in this group is also very important. We currently have directors with hands-on experience in the finance, insurance, and debt management sectors, as well as directors with expertise in governance and diverse experience in entrepreneurial skills and sales, digital marketing and communications, and business growth.
I will ask each of Matt, Lauren, and John to come up and speak in support of their re-election. Then after they do that, well, part of that is you can ask questions, and after they do that, we will do the proposing and seconding. Can we start with Matt?
Thank you, Grant. Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here. My name is Matthew Harrison, and I am very proud to be standing here today as a director of Turners. Turners is an exceptional company, one which I absolutely love dearly. I also love cars, so that helps, a bit like Grant here. I am very proud to have been sitting on the board since 2012. I also want to acknowledge our fantastic management team that we have, led by Todd and Aaron. They do an absolutely amazing job.
I think we are very lucky and probably one of the luckiest NZX-listed companies. I would also like to say thanks to my fellow board members who are very exceptional in their role, led by a fantastic chairman, Mr. Baker, who has been there for a while, but he is doing a great job.
Most importantly, I also want to say thanks to our staff at Turners, Autosure, Oxford, and EC Credit. Without this large team of dedicated and passionate people, we simply wouldn't have the great business that you see here today. T hanks, team. As you may be aware, I joined the board when I sold EC Credit Control to Dorchester Pacific, which was back in 2012. I have been fortunate to have been involved with Dorchester and then Turners since this time.
My family is quite fortunate to have a combined shareholding of approximately 6% in the company, and I am very proud to represent these interests at the board level. I firmly believe that our family's goals and views as shareholders are very much aligned with every shareholder in the company. We certainly share all the same goals with growth and dividend sales and obviously growth in the share price.
Presently, I am chairperson of the Lending and Credit Committee. This is a role which I very much enjoyed, and I think given my history within the credit industry, I believe that I can add some value to this role. Our LCC has been able to improve the performance of our finance business over the last few years as you have seen, and we have also seen some very good growth in the loan book over the last couple of years.
In addition to this, I also sit on the board of our property company. I am quite involved in this, mainly because it is something I very much enjoy. I think Marc Wells, who leads that part of the business, probably does not agree with me all the time, but we seem to get a few things done and we are certainly doing quite a good job with adding to the property portfolio.
I have really embraced this, and I believe that the acquisition and the development of our property footprint is extremely valuable and over time will certainly generate lots of shareholder wealth. I stand here before you asking for your support, in my re-election as a director of Turners again, which in my very humble opinion, we are one of the best run and most impressive businesses on the NZX. That's it. Thank you everyone. Any questions? I will hand back to Grant.
Thank you, Matthew. Very eloquent. I would like to move the motion of renewing Matthew Harrison's directorship. Do I have a seconder? Thank you. Two seconders. Thank you. Right. Lauren, could you please come up and speak?
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity to speak. I am Lauren Quaintance, and I am very pleased to be seeking your support for my reappointment to the Turners board. My relationship with Turners actually goes back about five years now. I joined initially as an emerging director in October 2021, where I was working alongside the board and getting to know the business, its people, and its strategic priorities.
Then in April 2023, I was appointed as an independent director of Turners and subsequently joined the board of our insurance business, then DPL, now named Autosure. One of the things that has impressed me most about Turners is the quality of its strategy and the discipline with which it executes.
This is a business that has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to adapt, whether through changing economic cycles, COVID, shifts in the automotive market, or changing customer behavior, and more recently, an oil shock. I believe my experience brings a complementary perspective to my fellow directors. My executive career was focused on customers, digital, data, marketing, media, and sales, and I have been myself an entrepreneur who founded and scaled a business that was acquired by News Corp in Australia.
Since returning to New Zealand, I have deliberately built a broad governance portfolio. Alongside Turners, I am an independent director for NZX-listed Vista Group International, the Crusaders Super Rugby club, the South Island retail chain J. Ballantyne and Co., and I am also chair of ChristchurchNZ, the economic development agency for the city.
These roles give me exposure to a diverse range of businesses and sectors, from financial services and automotive to sport, tourism, retail, technology, and the screen industry, as well as deep insight into what is happening in one of our most important markets, the South Island, where Turners has made significant investments in recent years.
There is a common thread across all of these things that seems quite diverse, but I guess understanding customers, using data intelligently, navigating change, and ensuring strategy effectively translates into execution is what I try to bring to the board table. I believe those capabilities are increasingly important to Turners. The opportunity ahead is significant.
Turners has built a strong platform across automotive, finance, and insurance, and I believe there is considerable scope to continuing to deepening customer relationships using technology and data to improve the business and creating further value from the scale and diversification that Turners has built. I am particularly excited about the company's ambition to keep growing towards its FY 2031 target, including the aspiration to deliver NZD 100 million in net profit before tax.
After nearly five years with Turners, I think I know the business well, with all its quirks and things that make it quite different to a lot of other listed businesses but also make it great. I have great confidence in its people, who do an exceptional job, in its future, and I would very much like to continue the opportunity to contribute to the board in the next phase of growth. Thank you. Yes. Oh, questions. Questions.
I would like to move the motion to reappoint Lauren as director. Do I have a seconder? Thank you. All right. Last person to come on is not Antony, it is John. Sorry to disappoint.
Thank you, Grant. No, I am not Antony. I am definitely John. Good morning, everybody. John Roberts, just to clarify. I have been independent director with Turners, the Automotive Group, for the past 10 years. I am also director of Autosure Insurance, Oxford Finance, chair of the Audit, Risk Management and Sustainability Committee, and sit on the Lending and Credit Committee for the finance company. As the others have mentioned, the last year has been a total focus on executing the five-year plan and get us to net profit before tax for this financial year just passed of NZD 63.2 million.
I thought I would just do a quick reflection on the 10 years since I joined the board of the company, and it shows what this company actually, and what the team have delivered to shareholders. 10 years ago, a net profit before tax of NZD 21.6 million. This year, NZD 63.2 million. Earnings per share has grown from NZD 0.247 per share to NZD 0.504 per share, and the dividend has grown from NZD 0.13 per share to NZD 0.33 per share. The share price has grown from NZD 2.70 10 years ago to NZD 8.10 today.
In anyone's language, that is a real success story for our shareholders. Not to mention that we are now in the top 30 companies on the NZX, which in itself, we thought getting to the top 50 was a real milestone, and now we are in the top 30. For me personally, some of the major highlights from the past year have been the ongoing involvement in the development of the iconic Tina from Turners campaign that we now call Tina 2.0.
It's unquestionable this is one of the most highly regarded campaigns in New Zealand and has helped transform the business and build the brand, into a persona of a reputation that we're the only place to go to in New Zealand with confidence if you're selling or buying a used car, truck or piece of machinery. Interestingly, the strategic thinking behind the development of this brand program is now being applied to our Autosure brand as we now move this business to the next level of growth. We think it's got a stunning opportunity to really turbocharge that business.
For those that asked the question last year, we were also very successful in lobbying the current coalition government to scrap the ridiculous climate emission reporting regime for public companies who had a market capitalization of NZD 60 million. That's now been lifted to NZD 1 billion.
That probably saved us this year between NZD 500,000 and NZD 1 million of unnecessary cost and reporting. However, having said that, we're still collecting the data as we have the infrastructure set up just in case we get a change in government and we end up in a Groundhog Day, which would be pretty horrible. However, it has, as I said, it's saved us a lot of time and money over the past year.
Another highlight for me has been the ongoing work with the finance company to ensure that we're at the forefront of all credit changes, either by government, regulation, and/or new datasets that we can import into their business to help the credit decisioning process. As a lot of you know, that's a key area of interest for me given my years of experience in banking and finance.
Our focus is quality customers, and that's where we'll stay to keep our arrears rate low. Hand in glove with that, Todd put up a chart before that showed where we sit on the industry average as reported by the Credit Bureau Centrix group, which is the country's leading credit reporting agency. I'm actually chair of that group, so again, that gives me very early insight that I can bring to the board table to talk about what might be manifesting out in consumer land.
I also keep pretty close to the consumer pulse via my involvement as a director and investor in a company called Apollo Foods. Most of you will know that as Boring Oat Milk and Picky apple juices. Again, this keeps me very close because I'm actually out in supermarket land a lot speaking to consumers as they pick products off the shelf.
12 months ago, I was appointed by Minister David Seymour as chair of the regulatory body of Pharmac, and again, interestingly for me, this keeps me very close to what's happening at a health level of the country, because I meet with the Ministry of Health on a regular basis and other sector bodies to find out what's the game, especially in provincial New Zealand, what's keeping them awake at night. I'm a shareholder in Turners, like all of you.
I firmly believe that my interests in this company are totally aligned to all of us, and I'm 100% committed to the business, and I'm 100% committed to achieving that NZD 100 million net profit before tax target. W orking with my valued colleagues, both at a board level and at an operational level. I'd love to continue with this program and be part of the roadmap, and I really appreciate your support. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you. None? Okay. Thank you very much.
Just...
Oh, hang on.
Just before you disappear.
Yeah.
You mentioned Tina.
Yeah.
Which is an iconic advertising for Turners. Brilliant, actually.
Yeah.
A note that she has gone back to Samoa. Has the business got an ongoing contract with her, and how does that sit?
Yeah, the answer is yes. Greg, do you want to answer that one?
Y eah, she is currently residing in the islands. We keep in close touch with her, and she was back here recently, actually, and caught up with her. Yes, we have an ongoing contract with her for the long term. Y eah, she's part of the team, so to speak.
Any other. Good? No, good. Thank you very much.
Thanks, John. I would like to move the motion of the re-election of John. Do I have a seconder? Thank you. Okay. Down to my last piece of paper here, you will be pleased to know.
No.
Okay. Many shareholders who are not attending the meeting have voted by proxy. I hope these numbers are up to date. I think they are. They were up to date last night, anyway. I wish to advise that the proxies have been received for 28,053,145 shares, representing 31% of the total shares on issue. Those of you who are voting here, please complete your voting paper by ticking For, Against, or Abstain in the appropriate place on the form, and ensure you have signed the form, please. Please do not tick the discretion box.
If you have any difficulty or do not have a voting paper, please raise your hand and someone will assist you. Once the voting has finished, scrutineers will collect the voting papers. We are going to have just a three-minute recess to enable that to happen. Sorry? Oh, sorry.
It's not in regard to Mr. Roberts' general question.
That's all right.
Okay, back to Todd. In part of your talk about the expansion of the branches, you didn't mention Christchurch. Was that an oversight, or could you just comment on what you're doing down in Christchurch?
Yeah, sure. Well, Christchurch was a big year for us last year. We went from one to three different sites. We've opened three new branches in Christchurch. You might have missed it, but on the opportunities list, we have an active kind of negotiation going on there for a fourth site at the moment. Y eah, we're kind of looking for something in the northeast of that Christchurch kind of city region. T he three new branches that we have there are performing very well.
Okay. The final question, kind of an indelicate question, that occurred to me when I recently attended a rest home retirement village company. I feel like the question has got some applicability to this company as well. It is the matter of what is called key man insurance. There is a couple of especially key men in this company that I think we would all hate to lose. You, Grant, and you, Todd. Are you guys insured in case you burn out or in case you just have some health problems that incapacitate you for a few weeks or a few months at a time?
Well, [crosstalk] the short answer. I thought you were going to say we should be at a rest home for a moment, so I am glad that didn't come. No, we are not insured is the short answer. I think there is a lot of talent in the company, and Todd and I get to kind of get the oxygen because we are the head of the company. We have done a lot of things to get other people in the company more included in the day-to-day running.
I f things do go awry or one day we want to retire or do something else, that there is a good talent pool coming through. You will have seen that Todd has gone from being a CEO to a CEO and director, so we have got him on the board. We have got Greg, who spoke earlier. He comes to all our board meetings.
We are just trying to make sure that there is a lot of knowledge and a lot of talent and not too much dependence on any one person. We are definitely conscious of it. It is a good question. Okay, I think we might have finished voting now, haven't we? Okay. Well, thanks, everyone, again. That brings the meeting to a close.