Having ‘skin in game’
Turners Automotive Group is in an “excellent position from a funding perspective”, according to its chairman.
Grant Baker says the company’s new facilities with its banks and a termed-out securitisation warehouse have improved its pricing, increased capacity and reduced capital requirements.
“Our diversified earnings continue to be a real strength,” he told shareholders at this week’s annual general meeting. “We’ve seen our annuity businesses contribute at a higher level as auto retail has been affected by the continuation of the Middle East situation.”
Baker, pictured, said Turners now has 67 per cent of its wider team enrolled in its employee share scheme. “This turbo-charges our high levels of engagement to even higher levels. And as you all know, I’m a big believer in having ‘skin in the game’. Our customer experience continues to rate highly and results for shareholders have been very good.
“We try to take a 100-year view on this company. Turners has been around since 1967 and we want to be making decisions now that position it for the next 40 years.
“Earlier this year we had an investor day. We outlined our new medium-term target of $100 million profit before tax for financial year 2031. Essentially this is mostly organic growth and potentially a couple of acquisitions on top of where we finished in financial year 2026.”
Baker explained organic growth will come from new branches of Turners Cars, plus growth in finance and direct-to-consumer insurance as well as Turners Servicing & Repairs’ expansion.
He reflected on 2025/26 as being a difficult environment, but “we are continuing to focus on our growth plans”. New branches are being developed, the finance business continues to grow and “some great work” has been done on the funding side of the business.
“We finished financial year 2026 strongly with a record quarterly-profit performance, but quickly found ourselves in choppy waters at the start of financial year 2027 with the Middle East conflict and fuel crisis. Our team has responded well and continues to do an outstanding job.
“Despite this short-term uncertainty, we continue to push on with our plans and remain confident in the future of this business.
“Apart from Covid-impacted financial year 2020, we have delivered growth in every year over the past 11. Our track record speaks for itself. For me as a substantial shareholder, this is a fantastic outcome. We have a good plan, an excellent team and know how to execute this plan.
“Financial year 2026 is our sixth record result in a row. The big three auto-related divisions delivered strong growth year on year and it was very much a story of improving consumer confidence. However, momentum has slowed and consumer confidence has dropped due to the Middle East conflict.”
