Exactly.{Not a lot of people know this..lol.].
Also TRA have traded property very profitably over the years.
Ive bought a few cheap 4wds from turners christchurch for fishing some off road areas. I dont know why they need another site its huge. Probably lots to display the non auction sales?
The main Christchurch site is just off the south eastern corner of Hagley Park. It is leased from Ngai Tahu I think, and I believe our local tribe is getting a very good rental income from Turners. A few years ago when Todd was doing those whistle stop presentations around the country, there was a meeting there which I attended. I remember Todd saying at the time they had been looking to develop their own Christchurch flagship premises and just missed out on what was the old AB Cables site along Blenheim Road.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the Hagley Park location, although the lease dates back from the days when Turners was very much an auction business first and foremost. It would just work better for Turners if they are paying rent to themselves, rather than a third party. I expect that Hagley Park site to be closed down when Turners open their new Christchurch complex, wherever that may be.
SNOOPY
That makes sense. Timaru should be good, it is a busy place these days. If they make 50% of the stock old Hilux wagons and Patrols they would make a bundle, it's almost a right of passage to own a 4wd down south. Cars that were worth 5k 15 years ago can get double or triple that (even with the extra ks) I wish I had kept all my old Hilux's now. Get some of those on the ferry Todd.
I went into Turners Hagley today, I got the last car park available and the sales people were run off their feet selling cars.
Compare that to the 3 other car yards I went to... I was the only buyer at each. One even said it has been a slow few months. Not the case for Turners!
I don't hold the stock but they certainly looked like they were making money today.
That is great to hear Norwest...I hope your visit was successful for you and for Turners!
Our Christchurch branch expansion is very much around our vehicle sourcing strategy.
The closer our branches are to customers the more vehicles we are able to buy.
The more vehicles we buy the more we are able to sell.
Our branch network is strategically way more important on the vehicle sourcing side of our business than the selling side in many respects. When people are looking to sell a car they are effectively buying a service off us...and consequently it needs to be convenient. When people are buying a car they will actually travel a long way to get the right car at the right price.
Our Hagley Park location is the last of our old auction configured locations. 28,000m2 site with a big warehouse. We now prefer ~10,000m2 sites, easier to manage, not as overwhelming for customers, we can have more of these located closer to our customers, and 10,000m2 sites are much easier to find and less expensive than the big sites with big warehouses.
The two years will come around quick Black Peter!
Hopefully that makes sense.
I also wanted to offer the sharetrader Turners forum a Q&A with Aaron Saunders and myself. Not sure if that would be of interest? Please let me know if it is and I will schedule something in. We would run it online at around 530pm one evening.
Thanks Todd for communicating with us ST'ers. I for one would love the opportunity for a Q&A. Great idea thank you.
Thanks for the insights Todd. An after hours Q&A would be great. Here's a question for the event, subject of a bit of discussion on here.
What is Turners strategy for sourcing and selling more hybrid and electric cars? Does the NZ sourced car strategy mean Turners is in danger of being 5 years out of date? Selling cars people don't want (they sold them after all) and not cars they do want?
Certainly sounds interesting ... and potentially you could run that similar to an "investor day" or "investor event" some other organisations do once a year. I wouldn't see, why this couldn't be run completely online to keep the organisational effort at a minimum.
This would (with NZX notification) avoid the risk that some other investors might complain afterwards about having been kept out of the loop.
In case you are running out of questions for such an event - I am sure, this is something where we can help :) ;