Vertu Motors PLC

LSE:VTU

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Robert Forrester, executive]

Good morning, and welcome to the investor and analyst presentation of Vertu Motors plc for our interim period ended 31st of August 2023. We're coming up to 17 years on the public market. We may very well be the last U.K.-focused, scaled, quoted company in the sector shortly. But we believe we've built a very strong and quality business.

If you look at our investment case, we believe it is very clear, this is a business that is sustainable and scalable. We believe that scale is vital to our success. And even down to implementation of regulatory matters such as consumer duty or indeed how we manage cyber risk, having scale gives us great benefits. And those benefits are visible across the business and through these results.

This is a business that is built on retaining customers, reselling them cars, retaining them into our aftersales business. And aftersales is high margin. And that's where we perceive significant future opportunity. This is a low-margin sector. So therefore, cost optimization is absolutely critical while our team of in-house software developers make us nimble in tackling cost and increasing productivity.

Our capital allocation strategy is well-known. We believe it's disciplined. And the Board clearly focused on making the right investment decisions, restructuring our portfolios of property and businesses for maximum profit and realizing cash from underperforming or surplus assets. And you can see that as a feature of these results. We have an attractive dividend and buyback approach. And we think the story is compelling.

If we turn over to Slide 3, the group continues to grow and mature. We now have 190 outlets with more manufacturer partners than any other player in the United Kingdom, going from Dacia all the way through to Ferrari. Our revenues are up 20%, our profits are up to GBP 31.5 million, clearly aiding our ability to pay increased dividends. We have very limited debt, low levels of gearing with incredibly strong asset backing, 70.9p tangible net asset per share illustrates this.

This is, in essence, a people business. For all our technology prowess, we are fundamentally a business where colleagues provide assistance to customers to meet their needs, ideally with a smile. Our colleague satisfaction scores are strong with 83%, considering the group a great place to work. And then those colleagues deliver great experiences. You can see our Net Promoter Score on used cars at 84%-plus speaks to this.

I'll now pass over to our Chief Financial Officer, Karen Anderson, to review the financial performance.

[Karen Anderson, executive]

Turning first to Slide 6. This sets out some financial KPIs over the last 5 years. Group revenue growth of 20% in the period was, of course, aided by the Helston acquisition, which accounts for 2/3 of this revenue increase. And whilst acquisitions are a part of the overall increase in revenues, 8.1% of revenue growth was also delivered in the core group, largely the result of new vehicle sales volumes and rising prices.

Gross margin percentages are relatively stable and remain higher than pre-COVID levels. Adjusted PBT of GBP 31.5 million represents a strong result ahead of all but post-COVID FY '22 levels. Tangible net assets of GBP 239 million are underpinned by the group's substantial freehold and long leasehold property portfolio.

If I turn to Slide 7, this shows a summarized income statement. As I have already highlighted, gross margins are normalizing but remain above pre-COVID levels with the group applying strong pricing discipline, particularly in fleet sales, where margins strengthened in the period. Gross profit per unit on new vehicles is normalizing due to improving supply.

Gross profits per unit on used vehicles remained strong and in this first half were higher than those achieved in the second half of last year. Vehicle prices, however, have remained high. And this has had a dampening impact on percentage margins from used vehicle sales. The group has also seen reduced aftersales margins in the period because of technician salary increases.

Total group operating expenses have been impacted by acquisitions, higher energy costs and increased vehicle costs. I'll cover this movement in more detail shortly. However, it's pleasing that operating expenses as a percentage of revenues have fallen.

Net finance charges have increased because of rising interest rates and the increased level of borrowing following the Helston acquisition. Manufacturer stocking charges are a key part of this year-on-year increase with rising rates and reduced restocking periods impacting on cost.

The group effective tax rate has increased following the change in the headline rate of corporation tax from the 1st of April. And this has clearly had an impact on EPS, which has risen 6% compared to the 11.9% rise in PBT.

Turning over to Slide 8. This shows a bridge of adjusted profit before tax compared to last year. Core group gross profit grew GBP 11.9 million in the period with growth in the new retail, aftersales and fleet and commercial sales channels, driven by increased vehicle volumes, high retained margins and a strong demand for our aftersales business.

Used vehicle core group profit declined because of a reduction in the like-for-like volumes of units sold in the period. Rising interest rates has meant that the group has been unable to run its popular 0% finance events, which drove significant used vehicle volume in the comparative period. All of the group's core aftersales channels saw a year-on-year improvement in gross profit generation.

The group slightly controlled costs, but the impact of inflation on the core group is clear in this profits bridge. And I'll provide more detail on costs in the coming slide. Acquisitions completed after the 1st of March 2022 are excluded from the core group. And this includes the substantial Helston acquisition, which contributed operating profit of GBP 6 million in the period.

Slide 9 shows a further detail on core group total underlying operating expenses. Overall, expenses as a percentage of revenue declined in the period and the core group operating expenses rose 4%, less than the rate of inflation and despite a significant rise in energy costs.

Energy costs actually, as anticipated, saw the biggest increase in the period. The group's previous favorable fixed-price electricity contract ended in September 2022. And thereafter, the group moved on to its energy purchase strategy. Part of this strategy was to move to self-generated energy from solar panels with those sites onstream in August, generating 9.5% of the group's electricity requirements. More sites are coming onstream as the project nears completion. And we now expect to exceed our initial target of 10% of the group's total electricity coming from these panels.

Vehicle costs have been impacted by rising vehicle prices, which increased depreciation or lease costs for the group's vehicle fleet. The single biggest cost of the group is clearly salary costs. These costs rose just 1% in the core group, well below the headline inflation rate. And this was aided by vacancy levels and reduced sales commissions payable as used car volumes fell year-on-year.

The group reduced marketing spend in the period by GBP 700,000 or 4%. This savings was, of course, aided by the lack of 0% finance events. Nevertheless, a focus on high return on investment activity meant that these savings were delivered whilst prompted brand awareness at Bristol Street Motors, the group's primary brand, grew. And Bristol Street Motors remains one of the highest ranking retail brands in England.

The group remains very focused on cost control with its group-wide War on Waste initiatives continuing. And these initiatives have enabled the group to reduce costs as a percentage of revenue over the period.

Turning to Slide 10. This summarizes the group's strong balance sheet. The group's pension scheme remains in surplus and fully funded under the actuarial basis, requiring no cash contributions from the company. The group's substantial freehold and long leasehold property portfolio underpins the group's tangible net assets per share of 70.9p.

At the end of the FY '23 financial year, the group drove down used vehicle inventory levels. And in the period, the group took the decision to increase used vehicle inventory levels to maximize on the market opportunity. And like-for-like, the number of vehicles in stock, therefore, increased by 12.7%. Now that equates to just over 1,000 units, approximately 10 units per sales outlet. Manufacturer funded new vehicle inventory fell and improved supply and deliveries were expediated by the group.

Turning now to Slide 11, which summarizes the cash flows of the group and the net debt position at the 31st of August. Net cash flow from operating activities of GBP 14.7 million was delivered with the investment in used vehicle inventory apparent in the working capital movement. A free cash outflow of GBP 0.4 million was recorded.

In terms of capital allocation, GBP 5.1 million of cash was spent on the expansion of the group or in one-off capital expenditure projects, such as the solar panel installations, whilst GBP 9.7 million has been returned to shareholders in the form of dividends or share buybacks. Overall, excluding lease obligations, closing net debt was GBP 90.7 million.

In terms of the group's facilities, the acquisition revolving credit facility of GBP 93 million was for an initial period of 3 years with the option to extend for a further 2 years into December 2027. And the mortgages are provided by BMW Financial Services. And these are 20-year repayment facilities with no covenants secured on specific group properties.

The group's used vehicle stocking facility from Lombard, which was also extended at the time of the Helston purchase from GBP 35 million to GBP 70 million, has recently seen the facility reduce back to GBP 15 million to reflect low utilization levels by the group. Lombard, however, indicated that retain the appetite that increases facility limit, should the group require it in the future.

Slide 12 illustrates the focused and disciplined capital allocation of the group. The balance between investment and group growth to deliver on the group's growth strategy and shareholder returns remains vital. In terms of growth, we continue to deliver this whilst the major focus of the group in the period was on the successful integration of the Helston dealerships.

The fixed asset additions for the period totaled GBP 11.7 million whilst FY '24 full year forecast for net capital expenditure has been revised down from the previously advised GBP 38 million to GBP 27.8 million, a reduction of GBP 10.2 million and a good example of discipline within our group's capital allocation decision-making.

GBP 6 million of this forecast spend has been deferred into next year, FY '25, and GBP 2 million has been saved on the rescoping of one of our development plans. GBP 2.2 million of proceeds from the sale of surplus properties has been offset in the forecast with further proceeds anticipated but not yet included in the overall forecast that we set out here.

In terms of return to shareholders, the Board have approved an increase in the interim dividend from 0.7p per share to 0.85p per share, an increase of over 20%. The stated dividend policy of 3 to 4x cover by diluted EPS has been applied here. The group has also spent GBP 5 million on the repurchase of its own shares in the financial year-to-date and has a new authority for a further GBP 3 million of purchases, bringing the total outstanding authority to GBP 4 million today.

Turning to Slide 13, my final slide. This provides examples of the group's work to maximize returns through its property portfolio. As I've said, GBP 2.2 million of cash has been generated from the sale of surplus property assets in the period. These disposals also generated a small profit on disposal of GBP 0.5 million.

Further proceeds of GBP 7.3 million are anticipated over the next 9 months. And the most significant assets included within this expected proceeds is the receipt of an expected GBP 5.5 million in respect of land adjacent to our Glasgow Nissan dealership, where the planning judicial review period of 4 months has just commenced.

Finally, here on this slide are two examples of closures to sales outlets, which have generated a structural reduction in operating expenses and have augmented sales and profits in other dealerships with sales outlets nearby. Malton BMW/MINI was closed and the property lease surrendered with much of the customer base now traveling to nearby York. Stroud Ford is a freehold site, where the group is now contracted to sell the property, subject to planning. And again, colleagues and customers of Stroud have mostly transferred to our nearby Gloucester Ford business.

I'll now pass over to Robert for an update on operational performance and on our strategy execution.

[Robert Forrester, executive]

Okay. Thank you very much, Karen. If we turn to Slide 15, this goes through the group vehicle sales performance in terms of volumes, margins and also market share.

The new car market dynamics in the period saw higher supply levels as we've come out of pandemic and Ukrainian-related supply shortages. And this has been especially the case with regard to battery electric vehicle, BEV, products. Demand has been very robust in the fleet and motability channels.

And I think this reflects pent-up demand because during the post-pandemic periods, the manufacturers didn't supply those channels. And with the increased supply, they are now doing. It's fair to say that ESG concerns and tax breaks for company car drivers is helping to drive BEV demand through the fleet segments. Retail demand overall can best be described as stable.

In good news, the group has increased its retail car market share up to 4.6%, largely due to the increase in the number of outlets. Motability channel represents significant growth in the period as supply surged, and we saw quite considerable 65% growth in the market and 78% growth within the group.

The group now has 6.2% market share as motability's single largest customer. And we have 36,500 customers who take the motability cars from us and come back for service over a 3-year period, very, very important for our aftersales business. Margins remained stable despite the increase in the motability mix, which is done at a lower margin.

If we turn to the fleet, car and van segments, we saw excellent margin retention and good volume growth. A gross profit per unit of GBP 1,100 is a record for the group and just shows how lucrative fleet supply can be. We have avoided the low-margin rental business, which has driven much of the increase in the size of the fleet market in the last 12 months. But I think that's good business decisions.

Turning to the used car market. It has been somewhat complex. The low pandemic new car markets over the past few years have created quite a significant shortfall in what are now 3- to 5-year-old used cars. This has clearly impacted sales volumes because those cars are not there. The sector has moved into older cars as a priority to obtain and sell to provide volume. But these do take longer to prepare and cost more to prepare to a retail standard.

These changes have caused some quite considerable distress in the used car supermarket sector. And the franchise sector has undoubtedly benefited from having parts exchange supply coming in from the new car channels. Increasing interest rates have led to much higher APRs. We regularly now see 11%, 13.9% APRs not seen for many years.

And the higher sales prices that are in place in the sector, combined with the higher APRs, clearly can lead to affordability issues. Bear in mind, our average used car sales price is now close to GBP 21,000. And prices of used vehicles remain 25% higher than they were in January 2021. The market is undoubtedly much stronger for cheaper cars and older cars than for the higher-priced younger cars.

Karen mentioned our 0% events, which in H1 last year drove volume at the expense of margin. And you can see that our margins have gone to a high level of GBP 1,536 per unit. This is actually higher than the gross profit per unit in H2 last year, which is clearly pleasing. We have increased through H1 stock levels to ensure that when we are taking longer to prepare these older cars that we have sufficient cars on the Internet to draw customers to us. And I think that has progressively worked over the period in having more imaged stock.

If we look at residuals in particular, clearly in times of a continued structural shortage, that should be an underpinning of residuals. And I think that's true. However, we have seen particularly electric vehicles suffering significant falls in residuals in the period. I think electric value are now around 40% lower than they were for used cars around 12 months ago. They're now much more affordable.

And an example, when an industry player recently went into receivership from the subscription sector, we actually bought 600 used electric vehicles from the administrator because we saw an opportunity. Residual values, I believe, for electric vehicles have definitely plateaued. We are now seeing higher-end product weakness in terms of residuals in the last couple of months over the late summer. And I think demand is under pressure in those -- in higher-priced potentially premium used cars.

Overall, the world on used cars feels far more like normality. Used cars actually decline in value each month, which isn't something that should necessarily scare us because that's actually what used product should actually do. Our aim, of course, in used cars is to grow volumes whilst maintaining margin. And our new Vertu Analytics product, which is being rolled out across the group, we have a lot of confidence in and we believe is sector-leading in using data to help us achieve our goal of generating maximum gross profit.

If we turn to the important aftersales arena on Slide 16, there are very positive trends here. And we consider aftersales to be a real opportunity for growth in the medium term. Our next slide actually talks about technician resource specifically. But we have an increasingly positive picture of more technicians in place, which should enable us to drive higher service sales when they get used to the product that they're working on.

We are seeing slightly reduced margin but overall increase in gross profit. As you can see here, service like-for-like sales were up 5.7%. And we grew gross profit on a like-for-like basis across each of the channels. Parts, for example, was another success story, 12% growth in sales at good margins. Probably for us, one of the key highlights in the period is the transformation in margin in our accident repair and smart repair segments, which I believe to be a real success.

Our strategy has been to move the work providers in our accident repair centers from insurance direct relationships to higher-margin work for our own customers from our database and from work through approved manufacturer schemes. The truth is cars are increasingly complicated. And approved body shops of the manufacturer, I think, is where the action is.

The smart repair business put more vans on the road to serve our dealerships. We are looking at setting up a retail smart repair business to service our 2 million customers because our current smart repair business pretty well functions to serve our dealerships in used car preparation. We find this new business quite exciting. Overall, accident and smart repair saw a 23.5% increase in sales and a 5.2% increase in margin, which is quite significant. Gross profit rose in every aftersales segment.

Technicians have been a constraint on our business for a number of years. Post-COVID labor shortages are not unique to motor retail. But we have had an acute shortage of service technicians. And I believe they've held back activity levels, not only for retail customers but also in preparing used cars. We have taken quite definitive action in this area. And it's clear to see why. After taking account of the technicians' costs, technicians generate around GBP 115,000 of gross profit annually. So there is a big prize here.

We have taken multiple actions to make sure we recruit and retain technicians. We've introduced flexible shift patterns, training schemes to fast track non-franchised sector technicians from our competitors into franchised dealerships, recruited significant increasing numbers of apprentices. We've increased spend where we've got a vacancy for technicians to make sure our message gets out there. And we have taken action to increase basic pay.

These strategies are certainly paying off. And I'm pleased to report, as it shows here, that our core group has 50 more technicians at the end of August than it had 6 months earlier. That is equivalent to around GBP 5 million of additional annualized gross profit. We are winning this battle. Clearly, there is more to do.

In terms of strategic update, there are two issues which are impacting the sector. The first is electrification. The second is the implementation of agency models on new car sales for certain of our manufacturers. If we turn to electrification first, we need to bear in mind electrification is a government-imposed transition that is not being left to consumers to decide the powertrain. The government has decided what powertrains are acceptable going forward. Clearly, this has been much in the news.

It's fair to say that retail demand for battery electric vehicles has been muted. Demand is very strong from the corporate sector and from potential retail customers who buy through salary sacrifice schemes. Tax breaks certainly have an impact in terms of where demand is. But there are no customer incentives currently from the government in relation to retail demand. The Prime Minister's announcement that they were moving the ban on petrol and diesel new car sales from 2030 to 2035 was not really what it seemed.

The ZEV, zero-emission vehicle, mandate, which has been in consultation for quite a significant period, was up for debate following the Prime Minister's announcement. And there was some surprise when last week, they actually confirmed that the mandate would be implemented pretty well as described with fines of up to GBP 15,000 a vehicle for every car that was sold in excess of the required percentage mix.

So for example, in 2024, a manufacturer has to hit 22% BEV mix, considerably ahead of where we are in 2023, in order to avoid fines. These are quite stretching targets. And actually, by 2030, the target is 80%. So to say there isn't a ban is technically true. But clearly, government action is going to push the market into a heavy mix of battery electric vehicles by 2030. I'm not convinced that consumers actually fully understand that.

This will potentially create some market turbulence. Because manufacturer will have to balance the supply of battery electric vehicles with ICE, internal combustion engine, vehicles that may lead to higher petrol and diesel prices in new cars. It might lead to lower supply. And it could indeed provide a break on overall market growth.

One thing is for sure, the manufacturers are going to be trying to avoid the fines where at all possible. And we will have to weave our way through what that means in terms of the cars we need to sell. It's fair to say we will sell the cars. And we will do our best to make sure the customers get the right vehicle for them.

There are further complexities around rules of origin arising from the Brexit deal, which are unresolved. There is a risk that between the United Kingdom and the European Union from January next year that if there isn't sufficient sourcing of batteries and other products within the car from the United Kingdom or European Union that tariffs will apply between the European Union and the U.K.

There is much maneuvering on this and much in the press about the role of the German government. But at the moment, this is still an outstanding issue. And clearly, tariff imposition could lead to higher new car prices and could actually lead to some new entrants bringing cars in from outside Europe to actually be able to take some more share.

If we actually stand back and look at electrification, there are, in my mind, two critical issues which need to be resolved before electrification really takes off. The first is the obvious one, which is charging infrastructure provision. And I think everyone has some degree of experience of that from friends and family. It was interesting that Moto, the motorway service operator, actually announced over the weekend, they're going to put security guards on the electric charging points to avoid charging rage.

And secondly, insurance is becoming more and more of an issue, where insurers are looking at the history around electric vehicle accidents and the cause of them. And indeed, John Lewis at the weekend announced they were no longer going to provide electric vehicle insurance. So there is plenty of work to do in terms of the wider industry to get electric vehicles as a full proposition for the overall population. You wouldn't rule out further changes in those regulations and further delays to come.

The agency phenomena, where manufacturers bill customers directly for the new car as opposed to that transaction being transacted through a retailer like ourselves, is not a new phenomenon for the industry. We've been doing it for many years in parts and indeed in fleet. But it is new in the retail environment. Some manufacturers are going down this road and some are not going down this road.

The arguments for the implementation of agency, I think, come down to the fact that battery electric vehicles cost more to produce. The manufacturers are trying to remove some cost of distribution by removing intra-brand competition, competition between retailers, by fixing prices. And secondly, in an environment where online retailing may become a major item, it's certainly unproven today, then you clearly need a fixed one price.

Agency enables you to have a fixed price, though there are many different variations in what agency is being implemented. Mercedes-Benz started on the road on the 1st of January and Volvo started in the summer. So we have some early observations to make. Systems-wise, it's been pretty seamless. But certainly, volumes do look under pressure, though whether that is due to agency or other factors is at this point unclear. Clearly, we will monitor that.

The Board's view is that there is very little question that manufacturers will need a capital-intensive retail and aftersales physical footprint across geographies. We are and will remain the key touch point for customers whether we invoice the new vehicle or not. Indeed, some of the operators of the direct-to-consumer online propositions, such as Genesis, have now moved away from that and are implementing physical dealerships.

It's interesting that the Chinese entrants are also going down the physical dealerships. So physical dealerships is clearly where it's at. I think clearly, I suspect that network density will reduce over time, smaller retailers will close and larger dealerships will pick up the volume. You can almost see that in the work that we did with Stroud and Malton, I think, is a fairly good example of that direction of travel.

I suspect scaled retailers like ourselves will grow and gain economies of scale from that because manufacturers will see that as a way of actually reducing overall cost to them. And indeed, multi-franchising is likely to appeal to everybody as a way of reducing cost of distribution. The Board's view is that whichever route we go down, whether it's agency or non-agency, manufacturers need to ensure that the physical footprint is viable and attractive to investors. And I'm confident that, that will be the case.

If we move on to Slide 21, it's a slide that many of you will be familiar with. It's our strategy slide. We undertook a review of the strategy as a Board in September. And we believe the key tenets hold good. Our key objective is to grow the group through scale, driving long-term sustainable cash flows, which we've got a good history of doing. Secondly, we will use our own tech to drive up productivity, which is still vital, to take cost out and to enhance customer journeys. We try and achieve all three. And I think some of the initiatives I'll go through show the benefits of having in-house technology expertise.

As I've said before, people are absolutely critical to what we do. There has to be a focus on colleagues and a focus on customers. Our mission statement is to deliver an outstanding customer motoring experience through honesty and trust. And that can really only be done with people, aided by technology, but people are -- the colleagues of the people have to go the extra mile for customers.

That then means we clearly have to invest in human capital. And we invest heavily in not only sales and customer service skills but also in management and leadership skills. And we have considerable success in upskilling our people. Finally, our ancillary businesses complement our franchise businesses. And we intend to further develop these additional profit streams.

Clearly, over the last 12 months, the big news was the Helston acquisition in December. It was our biggest financial acquisition to date. I'm pleased to say it's been performing and progressing well from an integration standpoint. We have established the Vertu brand in the Southwest now, sponsoring the Exeter Chiefs, Plymouth Argyle, Somerset County Cricket and attending the very well-attended county shows. Our brand awareness is getting better in the Southwest, where Vertu was not previously represented.

We have a number of major capital expenditure projects down in the Southwest, the reconfiguring of Exeter BMW/MINI to create an absolute first-class facility. And we've just invested in a new accident repair center in Yeovil, bearing in mind we got approvals for our own dealerships for Volvo, BMW, MINI and Land Rover.

The key task, I think, now is to make sure that these dealerships have the appropriate level of resource to be able to deliver higher activity levels and recruitment remains a primary focus down there as well as installing the Vertu culture, which has been built up over nearly 17 years. And we spend time each month with managers to make sure that they understand the key aspects of our culture and how we deliver for customers.

Turning to brand awareness on Slide 23. We believe brand awareness is vital in terms of driving customers to our websites, to our dealerships and building trust. Bristol Street Motors is England's largest franchise brand by prompted brand awareness measurement. And indeed, that awareness is growing. Macklin Motors is now a major player in Scotland. And social media, which we believe is absolutely pivotal to that brand awareness, we now have 485,000 followers across the U.K., 120,000 more followers than our nearest rival.

Indeed, just to show you some of the work that we've been doing, the former Helston Group didn't do any major effort on social media. And we've now installed it into all the dealerships, predominantly using Facebook, and Truro Land Rover now reach between 200,000 and 300,000 people a week via Facebook and doing an absolutely tremendous effort. In fact, they're showing the rest of the group how to do it.

If we turn to digitalization, which is really business as usual in many ways, we have a 50-plus strong team. We developed a number of products. We talked previously about Vertu Insights, which has now been rolled out. This is a sector-leading used car stock and pricing system using a variety of different data sources to set values and to monitor market fluctuations in price and indeed to move closer to automatic pricing of used vehicles.

The V-Pay product is a deferred payment process and system for service customers, so they can defer the payment of big bills. And that is now delivering cost reductions against the third-party supplier that we used before. Unusually, in self-service check-in, we use a third-party product, but it's an excellent product creating a slick process for service customers. It's quick and convenient.

You can literally go into a dealership, having checked in at home, drop your keys and you're away, which is actually what a lot of customers like to do. It's also been very successful in driving add-on sales because the check-in process includes some certain questions, would you like your wiper blades replaced being a common one. And also, it's given us 13,500 customers who have asked for a value for their current car, which gives us a potential change conversation around their current car.

Fourthly, the customer data platform sits alongside a new enterprise-wide data warehouse. And we've now implemented our first user case, streamlining e-mail contact post service visits. It's created a massive increase in efficiency and increases knowledge of our first-party data, which is very useful in a number of ways. This journey in the customer data platform is just starting, but it should revolutionize our marketing and make it far more personal.

We have said for many years that the business has to be focused on operational excellence. And it will not surprise you to know that we have inconsistency in operational excellence. We can always do better. And management is very focused on making sure we've got that consistency. Each year, we set out a group vision. You've got 2023's vision here, where we set out very specific goals for every dealership on what we want them to achieve. And it prioritizes the key aspects on how to run dealerships within our group.

There are three broad areas. One is people, have we got a committed team who are happy working in the dealership? The second is are we retaining customers and delivering great experiences? And the third are some core process consistency items. It will not surprise you to know that we try and get 66% of inquiries on a test drive. Test drives are pivotal to selling cars. So you can see here, it's about process adherence.

We then rank every dealership from 1 to 190 each month. So the management teams and indeed everyone in the group, because we broadcast it, can see where their dealerships sit and the areas they need to improve on. There are lots of incremental gains from getting more consistency across our portfolio.

If we turn to current trading and outlook, the good news, I think, is that we are, we believe, in line with current market expectations for the full year. That should give people confidence with regards to the financial year. September saw strong profits on the back, obviously, of a plate change month. And it is indeed the biggest profit contributor in terms of months in H2. New car volumes grew with new car margins slowly normalizing as more supply comes through, no great surprise there.

Used car volume trends actually improved compared to those in the previous period, reflecting probably of the fact we've got increased stock. And we have seen values of electric vehicles stabilize. We've, as I said, gone into the market and bought more electric vehicles in the used sector, which we think we can make good margins on. However, in recent months, we have seen higher-end product in premium manufacturers, expensive product, coming under more pricing and margin pressure. And clearly, that will be one to watch in the next few months.

On aftersales, I think we've got exciting prospects, not only in the accident repair and smart repair areas but in the core service proposition. We have got increased technician numbers. We are still recruiting more technicians. And that should provide an ability to grow share. In addition, we've got a pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions visible. And our continued growth strategy should come through over the next few months.

So final slide on 27. In summary, we are very proud of the progress. We have built a scaled group of over GBP 4 billion revenues in the last 16 to 17 years. And we think it's a good business. It's certainly very well capitalized. We are very resilient from a financial structure point of view. We have stable and yet energetic management throughout the business. And we've got development programs bringing in some real talent to be able to manage a scaled group going forward.

We may very well be the last scaled, U.K.-based PLC in the sector, which is not something we envisaged in November 2006. But we remain very excited by the prospects for this group and to gain further scale. Thank you.