Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Daryl Kenningham: Rajat, this is Daryl. So far the impact has been minimal. We purchased ahead and stocked up on the fastest moving parts in advance of the strike or advance the contract negotiations, I should say. And so we’re still able to — we’re still living off of that extra stock. We also were able to leverage our other stores around the country when we do have a part shortage. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that, in the next quarter, we’ll start to see more part shortage issues from the two brands you mentioned. I don’t know that they’ll be significant. The OEMs have been fairly responsive with being able to supply us, but I don’t know that it’s — I think it will probably be a bigger issue for us in Q4 than it was in Q3, but I can’t say it will be severe.

Rajat Gupta: Got it. Have you already started to feel that impact in the fourth quarter? Or does the strike need to continue for another week or so before you start to feel that?

Daryl Kenningham: Well, we won’t have a full picture until after the quarter is over, so it’s hard to say right now.

Rajat Gupta: Got it. Got it. Just on SG&A then, helpful color on the slide deck around the productivity improvements. In the past, you’ve given us some color around how much permanent SG&A to gross reduction you expect to see. I think you mentioned like 300 to 400 basis points in the past like this was probably more than a year ago. Curious as to — if you have any update to that based on what you’re seeing in the business, even in the UK? Any new guide rails or guardrails we should be thinking about in terms of what normalized SG&A to gross should be for the business? Thanks.

Daniel McHenry: Rajat, it’s Daniel here. I think an important statistic to note that I don’t think is in our investor deck is that we’re still 7% down in terms of head count in the US versus 2019 on a same-store basis. And with that, we have added 11% more technicians. So the element related to SG&A is down even more than 7% in terms of head count. And at this time, I don’t see any of that head count returning. Clearly, 30% additional productivity per salesperson. Again, I don’t see us going back to the ways that we were pre-pandemic. So I think all of that cost reduction — that people headcount that’s added is added permanently. In terms of the guidance, I guess, that we’ve given, pre-pandemic, whole company, we were at 74% SG&A as a percent of growth. I don’t see that ever being above 70%, all subject to recession or major changes in the industry.

Operator: Our next question comes from David Whiston from Morningstar. Please go ahead with your question.

David Whiston: Thanks. Good morning. Really impressed by the used vehicle performance. I wanted to just look at both sides of it really. Like how are you convincing the consumer, who is really struggling with used affordability, to pay over $30,000? But then on the procurement side, how are you keeping the GPU up as well?

Daryl Kenningham: David, good morning. Daryl. I think we’re being smarter about what we’re sourcing and how we’re sourcing. We implemented some new technology about a year ago, which helps us with acquisition and it helps us with pricing. And it’s much more responsive. It takes more of our, for lack of a better word, our gut instinct out of it and relies much more heavily on data and market intelligence on a mass basis, not just on a car-by-car basis. And we’re, I believe, leveraging that better today than we ever have. So I think we’re probably getting some incrementality out of our used car performance that we have not seen in the past. And so I think that’s the results of what you’re seeing and I believe that’s really the difference.