Discipline in a downturn
Turners Automotive Group has posted a record normalised net profit before tax of $63.2 million for the year ended March 2026, up 16% on the prior year. Revenue hit $451.2 million, up 9%. Operating earnings climbed to $70.6 million from $61.9 million.
The reported NPAT of $38.2 million dipped fractionally from the prior year’s $38.6 million, but only because of a $7.5 million non-cash goodwill write-down on EC Credit, a business Turners has flagged as non-core. Strip that out and normalised NPAT was $45.6 million. The board lifted the full-year dividend to 33.0 cents per share, up 14% and nearly three times the 10 cents paid in FY15.
CEO Todd Hunter called it a ‘significant achievement’, noting that all three core automotive divisions delivered profit growth.
This is the second consecutive year of record underlying results through one of the more difficult economic stretches in recent memory.
Two halves, same playbook
The result was not a straight line. Hunter told RNZ in March that demand was soft in the first half before rebounding sharply: ‘We’ve seen very strong vehicle sales volumes through December, January and February, and particularly the margins that we’re earning on those cars have improved.’ The NZX guidance upgrade in March confirmed the pattern.
The same H1 weakness, H2 recovery dynamic played out in FY25. The FY25 annual report documented economic contraction dragging the first half before all four divisions returned to growth. That Turners has now repeated the trick suggests something structural rather than lucky.
The finance engine most people miss
Auto Retail did the heavy lifting on the top line, with revenue up 10% to $315.3 million and segment profit up 12%. But the standout was Finance. The loan book grew 27% to $566 million, with new lending up more than 50% year-on-year. A $200 million securitisation warehouse is now in place to fund continued book growth without equity dilution.
This is the vertical integration story that separates Turners from a typical dealer. Sell the car, write the loan, underwrite the insurance. Each transaction generates three revenue streams. Most independents are running on one.
Everyone else is losing grip
The contrast with the broader industry is stark. At AutoTalk Live 2026 today, industry analyst Stephen Timperley said he had ‘never seen such diversity of performance between dealerships’, with average dealer net-to-sale margins running at just 1-2%. Deloitte’s Daniel Morris highlighted that 57% of consumers would try something different for their next vehicle, signalling weakening brand loyalty across the category.
The MTA’s May 2026 industry report confirms the sector employs more than 65,000 people across nearly 16,000 businesses, generating $6.8 billion in GDP. But electrification complexity, potential ownership decline, and margin compression mean further consolidation is coming. Turners is the consolidator.
$800,000 on brand when everyone else was cutting
In November 2025, Turners committed more than $800,000 to a Tina 2.0 campaign refresh ahead of the summer selling season. The original Tina campaign, fronted by comedian Sieni Leo’o Olo, reframed Turners as a buyer of cars rather than just a seller. It reached the number two spot for brand recall despite Turners ranking 83rd by TV advertising spend.
Spending on brand when the market is soft is counterintuitive. But in a category where 57% of buyers are ready to switch, recall is a moat. Turners understood that before the data confirmed it.
The target they just pulled forward
Turners had set a $65 million normalised NPBT target for FY28. They are now bringing that forward to FY27, two years early. And they have set a new $100 million NPBT target for FY31. New branches are opening in Christchurch, Napier, Dunedin and Tauranga.
Hunter remains cautious about the near term, acknowledging that geopolitical tension has softened trading in the current quarter. ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley, also speaking at AutoTalk Live, warned that Middle East conflict is disrupting oil supply and filtering through to purchasing decisions.
But Turners has now demonstrated, twice, that it can grow through adversity. For business owners watching the economy and waiting for conditions to improve before investing, Turners is an uncomfortable case study. The businesses that win recoveries are the ones that kept spending through the trough. The gap between Turners and the rest of the industry is not closing. It is accelerating.
Sources
- Turners posts record $63.2m profit in FY26 result
- Turners profit dips on write-down despite record underlying result
- Turners Automotive Group forecasting record profit despite challenging economic conditions (2026-03-19)
- NZX Announcement: Turners Updates Earnings Guidance (2026-03-19)
- Turners Automotive splashes more than $800,000 on Tina 2.0 as it gears up for summer (2025-11-21)
- Turners Annual Report 2025 (2025-07)
- AutoTalk Live 2026 kicks off at Eden Park (2026-05-21)
- MTA report charts industry roadmap as fleet ages, electrification stalls (2026-05-21)