Car and truck dealer Colonial Motor Company has reported a record $27.9m profit after tax for the year to June 30.
This was up 61% on last year and up 13% on 2018, the previous best year, according to its unaudited preliminary result.
The publicly listed company has car, motorcycle, truck and agricultural equipment dealerships throughout New Zealand including subsidiary Southpac Trucks.
Its total dividends for the year were 55 cents per share, up 23 cents on the previous year.
Chairman Jim Gibbons says demand for all new vehicles has been “very strong”.
“Supply to meet this demand has been variable, arrivals are often late and lumpy, sometimes significantly so. However, when looked at on a longer year to date basis, supply has grown to meet the demand.”
He points out that total new registrations for the first six months of this calendar year were a record 84,598 vehicles.
Gibbons added that all areas of the business, car dealerships, heavy trucks and tractors, performed well.
In Rotorua, a property has been purchased to be developed into a truck parts and service facility for Kenworth and DAF dealer Southpac Trucks. Kenworth continues to be the preferred brand in the logging industry, he says.
Gibbons expects the current favourable trading conditions, with strong demand for new vehicles but constrained by supply difficulties, to continue for the immediate future.
“In the medium term, the planned new vehicle taxes will change the pricing relativity of vehicles, but the deeper driver of ongoing demand will be the strength of the economy and consumer confidence,” he says.
The supply of electric vehicles from the Company’s franchisors is small but growing; Ford has launched a plug in hybrid Escape and a plug in hybrid Transit Custom, and Mazda a fully electric MX30.
Meanwhile, major developments in Christchurch for Team Hutchinson Ford and the Lower Hutt Ford and Mazda hub for Capital City Motors, are nearing completion. The new branch facility for Southern Autos Manukau Limited, representing Suzuki and Isuzu, has opened in Botany, Auckland.
Jim Gibbons announced that he would be retiring at the conclusion of the AGM in November and Ash Waugh has been appointed by the board to the position of chair elect.
