Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Daniel McHenry: So, I’ll take the first part of that question, Daniel here. Daniel, regarding the absolute dollar number that we would expect to take guide in terms of headcount, that’s somewhere between $8 million and $10 million. And the other thing that, we’re laser focused on, is our loaner car fleet, demonstrator fleet, because clearly they’re taking and big drops in valuation at the moment. We see that being somewhere around a $3 million saving.

Daniel Imbro: Great. And then…

Daryl Kenningham: Daniel on – a little more on the headcount. We’re still down versus 2019 in the U.S. on headcount on a same-store basis, down quite a bit, 7%. So, in the U.K., we were not. We were heavier in the U.K. on a relative basis versus 2019 on a same-store. So, we had opportunity in the U.K. Would that ever hit us in the U.S.? Well who knows? I mean, it depends on what business conditions do. We’ve done a better job in our U.S. business managing the headcount than we have in the U.K.

Daniel Imbro: That’s helpful. And then maybe on the U.K., another follow-up. I think last quarter, you mentioned almost 18,000 units in the backlog. This morning, you mentioned still five months of backlog. Can you help us reconcile that with the 2% decline in same-store units? I guess there was an expectation that that level of backlog, would help insulate results, and you can keep growing despite the market slowing. So, any color you can provide I mean, why that didn’t play out, and how we should think about growth going forward despite this backlog?

Daryl Kenningham: Well, we didn’t keep up with the new car industry in the fourth quarter in the U.K. And we built inventory on the new car side, even though we still have a fairly robust order bank. And we have to do a better job, with our throughput of our inventory. That’s one of the reasons that we’ve taken a hard look at how we’re marketing. Are we driving the right traffic? Are we focused on the right vehicles and the right brands? And so, that’s part of our actions that we’re taking in the U.K., because honestly, while we over performed in the U.S. on exactly that metric, we underperformed in the U.K. on exactly that thing. So, we have some work to do around driving more customer demand to our store.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mike Ward from Freedom Capital Markets. Please go ahead with your question.

Michael Ward: Thanks very much. Good morning, everyone. On the parts and service side in the U.S. I think you mentioned that the customer pay was up 7%. How did collision or warranty, or wholesale do?

Daniel McHenry: Collision was down a tick, 1.8%. CP was up 6.5%. As you mentioned, the warranty was up a little over 4%.

Michael Ward: Okay. So the weak spot was a collision. So was that regional, or was it just a tough comp?

Daniel McHenry: No, I think it’s a tough comp. We’ve seen collision grow at 25%, 30% over the last two years, basically. Also, collision is a real smart part of our business. It’s $5 million in gross profit a month. For us, it’s not much. It’s like less than 4% of our business.

Michael Ward: Okay. And on the U.K. side, it sounds like some of the adjustment on used vehicle was almost one-time in nature. It sounds like you liquidated some inventory that you were holding onto a little bit too long. Is that the right read?

Daniel McHenry: Yes.

Michael Ward: That was the 1,300 units, I think you said, something like that?

Daniel McHenry: $1,300 per unit.

Michael Ward: Oh $1,300 a unit. Okay. Okay. That contributed to it. Okay. And then just one last thing on the U.K. March is another big registration month. Any indications on orders you have for March? Is that part of the 13,000 backlog? What can we expect as we go into Q1?

Daniel McHenry: Well, it’s part of the backlog. We haven’t broken it down for, which is March and which hasn’t. We can get that information. The SAR in the U.K. is expected to grow about 10% this year. And so, to us that’s encouraging. And we have inventory going into March, which is nice to have. So hopefully, we’ll be able to take advantage of it, Mike.

Operator: And our next question is a follow-up from Rajat Gupta from JPMorgan. Please go ahead with your follow-up.

Rajat Gupta: Great. Thanks for squeezing me in again here. I had a question on new GPUs. One of them was, could you help us dissect the sequential moderation across different brands, like import, domestic, luxury? And you also mentioned like the $100 a month was consistent with what you’d expected. And is that something, you expect to continue here in the first quarter as well? Just want to clarify those two points? Thanks.