Todd Hunter: Turners Automotive CEO on the company's record return

Despite the challenging economic conditions, Turners Automotive is standing strong. 

The company announced a record year to March, returning a profit of $38.6 million – a 17% increase. 

The result capped off what the company said was a decade of sustainable growth. 

CEO Todd Hunter told Mike Hosking the secret to sustainable growth is to provide a great environment for their people. 

He says they then provide a great experience for customers, and the combination of those two things delivers a great experience for their shareholders. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Another good sign that you can run a successful business

(00:02):
even of times a peer a bit tight. This is
going back to what Andrew Keller who was telling us
a couple of months ago. This is Turners, of course,
record year to March profits up seventeen percent. Todd Hunt
is the CEO of the business and as with us,
Todd morning, Good morning Mike. So a decade of sustainable growth.
What's your secret?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, I guess it's many things in the end, but yeah,
I think, I mean, I think the formula we work
to is provide a great environment for our people. They
provide a great experience for our customers, and the combination
of those two things should deliver a great experience for
our shareholders. And I think the formula is absolutely proven
out and will continue to prove out.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
How only edge of the economy are you? In other words,
you reliant on the place doing well.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, certainly, aspects of our business are. We had a
very tough first half in our auto business. We were
having to discount cars to keep sales going quite heavenly,
I mean, similar things that you would hear from Rodger
Brisco's I think. But we do have some divestification in
earnings so having the finance business and the insurance business

(01:08):
alongside the auto business does help provide consistency. But certainly
the second half for US was much stronger than the
first half, and we had all our business divisions reporting
ahead of the prior year in the second half.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
And that second half is part of a recovery or not.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
I think it is a part of recovery. I would
say it feels to us like the economy is bouncing
along the bottom. I'm a strong advocate for the Reserve
Bank doing something meaningful today, and they need to. I
think Jared Kier is absolutely on the money when he
sees interest rates are still restrictive and we need to

(01:46):
stimulate the economy for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, so you'd say fifty points absolutely, Okay. When you
talk about your loan book expanding, I'm always interested that
do people borrow to buy a car because they have
to or because they're bullish or a bit of both.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I would say more because they have to, And we
put a lot of effort into making well, firstly, making
sure people can pay those loans back, and then they've
got some buffer to withstand some surprise event that may
cause some strain and pressure so that is one of

(02:24):
the reasons our loan book is performing so well.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
The no guidance for the year ahead, you join a
long queue of people who seemingly don't have a clue
what's going on. How difficult is it right now?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, it's tricky for sure. And the guidance thing is
always interesting. We try and keep our investors in, shareholders
and interested people focused on the medium term. I kind
of have a view that the results may be up
and down a bit in the short term. What you want.
People has focused on kind of medium term growth, and
that's why we put out a three year target. So

(03:00):
we're very confident we're going to get to that. To
that number and twenty eight of sixty five million.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
How good is Tina? The Tina thing is better than
you ever could have imagined or not, for sure.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean that has been a unicorn of a marketing campaign.
She has resonated with people more than we ever thought
would happen. It's been great for our team internally, and yeah,
I mean it's just been just a super campaign. Looking yesterday,
she We've had over one point one million views of

(03:32):
the sixty second ad on YouTube and people are watching
it for fifty six seconds they were watching the entire ad,
which is very unusual.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Good on you and so yesterday you had your result.
Plus I'm assuming you watched Monaco.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yes, great result for Liam did what he needed to
do as a team player and and got the results.
So you're very proud, very proud of his achievement last weekend.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Good stuff, nice thought you might and go well appreciate it.
Tod Hunt, who is the CEO at Turner's Automotive the
reference to LAM they have am they have a tie
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