Holiday Message

This will be the final edition of our Motor Industry Alert for the calendar year as our office closedown is from Friday, 20 December to Monday, 13 January 2014.

Our ProfitFocus Support Desk will be available every day during this period, outside normal Public Holidays.

We attached the Monthly Dealer Profitability in this newsletter, which we trust you will gather insights and information from. Big picture – the retail motor industry shows a net profit percentage of sales for the October month as:

It has been another busy year and, excitingly, we have progressed well with Stage 1 of the eProfitFocus Platform rebuild which will bring our reporting clients and manufacturers to a new level of sophistication and insight. You will see more on that in this Alert and in the New Year.

Our Industry is exciting, dynamic and sometimes volatile. If we were to summarise the year in six bullet points, we would highlight:

1. Manufacturing Changes. The combination of structural changes in the worldwide economy and the maturing of manufacturing in Western economies, have resulted in Ford and more recently Holden announcing their intention to close their doors to car manufacturing on Australian shores. While sad for some, including retail enthusiasts, these brands are certainly open for business and have a good share of the market as they now compete on the same level as the other sixty or so importers in Australia. 
2. Fleet Leasing companies. The proposed changes in the FBT laws in 2013 had the potential to directly and significantly impact the fleet leasing business. There were many differing views and some argued that such a change, if passed, would have levelled the playing field as dealers retained more margin in new cars.
3. A.P. Eagers case – Son of Holdback. It has taken 6 years of legal action to obtain an outcome on this important piece of GST legislation. While many dealers will benefit from this outcome, it has been an important test case extending much further than the Motor Industry.
4. Building the Lucky Country. The 3rd part – Positioning for Prosperity, to the thought leadership series by Deloitte released in October has highlighted important considerations. As such, we spoke to many of you regarding the disruptive effects of the digital age on business and associated opportunities.
5. External governance. Whether it’s ACCC, ASIC or ATO, we have seen how the government and its regulatory bodies can affect both manufacturer and dealer sales. Front of mind at the moment is the ASIC review of Finance Commissions and we trust the Australian Finance Conference and AADA are able to put the best foot forward for the Industry. 
6. The continual consolidation by A.P. Eagers and AHG of typical family owned businesses but with a shift towards Greenfields set up rather than acquisition and new entrants into the market from the USA.

Finally, the Staff and Partners of Deloitte Motor Industry Services look forward to a prosperous new year and wish you and your family a happy and safe Christmas and 2014.

Thank you for working with us and stay tuned for our annual face-to-face Industry Overview in March 2014.

Hold the dates – 2013 Industry Overview – week of 10 March 2014

• Sydney           • Melbourne
• Brisbane        • Adelaide
• Perth              • New Zealand

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