Group 1 Automotive - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Executive Summary

• Q3 delivered record revenue of $5.78B (+10.8% y/y) and record P&S performance, but GAAP diluted EPS fell to $1.02 on a $123.9M U.K. impairment; adjusted diluted EPS rose to $10.45 (+5.6% y/y).
• Versus S&P Global consensus, revenue beat (+2.0%), EBITDA modestly beat, and adjusted EPS slightly missed as higher SG&A and U.K. headwinds offset operating strength (see Estimates Context; values marked with asterisks are from S&P Global).
• U.S. operations were the engine: used retail, aftersales, and F&I posted record results; F&I PRU rose 5.6% y/y and P&S gross profit hit $407.6M (+11.1% y/y).
• U.K. remains the pressure point: BEV-related margin compression, inflation, and restructuring continued; management notified JLR of a plan to exit the brand within 24 months and recorded related impairments; more cost actions underway.
• Capital allocation remains shareholder-friendly: Q3 buybacks of $82.5M, $226.3M authorization remaining at 9/30; subsequently increased to a new $500M authorization on Nov 11 and maintained a $0.50 quarterly dividend.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Broad-based U.S. outperformance and record lines: “Used vehicles, aftersales and F&I each achieved record performance” with healthy consumer demand and strong execution in U.S. stores.
• Aftersales as a durable growth lever: P&S revenues +11.2% y/y to $733.9M; P&S gross profit +11.1% y/y to $407.6M; management continues to expand technician capacity and shop productivity.
• F&I strength: F&I revenues +12.5% y/y to $240.9M; F&I PRU +5.6% y/y to $2,061; U.S. F&I PRU reached “an all-time quarterly high” near $2,500, underscoring sustained attachment and product penetration.

What Went Wrong

• EPS optics driven by U.K. impairment: GAAP diluted EPS from continuing ops fell to $1.02 due to $123.9M of impairment in the U.K.; adjusted EPS still rose to $10.45 (+5.6% y/y).
• SG&A deleverage: SG&A as a % of gross profit rose 183 bps to 71.2% (adjusted +259 bps to 70.1%) as cost inflation and U.K. inefficiencies persisted.
• GPU pressure: New and used retail GPUs declined y/y; U.S. new vehicle GPUs were negatively affected (~6%) by higher BEV deliveries at lower GPUs amid expiring tax credits; U.K. used retail GPU fell 20.6% y/y to $1,242.

Transcript

Speaker 5

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Group 1 Automotive's third quarter 2025 financial results conference call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Pete DeLongchamps, Group 1's Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services. Please go ahead, Mr. DeLongchamps.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jamie. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's call. The earnings release we issued this morning and a related slide presentation that includes reconciliations related to the adjusted results we will refer to on this call for comparison purposes have been posted to Group 1 Automotive's website. Before we begin, I'd like to make some brief remarks about forward-looking statements and the use of non-GAAP financial measures. Except for historical information mentioned during the conference call, statements made by management of Group 1 Automotive are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve both known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results.

Those risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with pricing, volume, inventory supply, conditions of market, successful integrations of acquisitions, and adverse developments in the global economy and resulting impacts on demand for new and used vehicles and related services. Those and other risks are described in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, certain non-GAAP financial measures, as defined under SEC rules, may be discussed on this call. As required by applicable SEC rules, the company provides reconciliations of any such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures on its website. Participating with me on today's call are Daryl Kenningham, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Daniel McHenry, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I'd now like to hand the call over to Daryl.

Speaker 2

Good morning, everyone. Let me start with a few highlights from the quarter before discussing our regional performance. Group 1 Automotive delivered an all-time record quarterly revenues driven by record results in parts and service and used vehicles, along with another quarter of very strong F&I performance in both the U.S. and the UK. New vehicle PRU gross profit performance was solid, and customer pay in both markets performed well, supported by healthy repair order growth. We've maintained cost discipline in the U.S. with good SG&A leverage, less than 66% on an as-reported and same-store basis. Now, turning to our UK operation, the UK environment remains challenging with inflation, wage, and insurance cost pressures, and the BEV mandate, which continues to compress margins. While the broader SAR improved slightly in the quarter, much of that growth was fleet-driven, and retail conditions remain soft.

New lower-cost entrants are seeing increasing market share performance with cost-conscious consumers. However, this is not yet a significant factor in our business, given our luxury-leaning portfolio. Despite these headwinds, there are some bright spots in our UK business. Our after-sales business continues to expand with healthy customer pay operations. We are applying our U.S. after-sales playbook across our UK dealerships. For example, in the UK, our stores now welcome walk-in customers, which we had previously limited. We have fully reopened shop schedules, cutting appointment wait times from nearly two weeks to just a few days. We're extremely pleased with the progress we're making in reshaping our UK after-sales business. New vehicle margins in the quarter remained steady year over year. Our used vehicle volumes in the UK were up nearly 4%. Our UK used vehicle teams have been successful exercising discipline in our aging and reconditioning processes.

F&I also delivered an excellent quarter, with same-store PRU up $155 or greater than 16% year over year. Our team is focused on improving product penetration, which has resulted in same-store financing penetration increasing by over 4%. We're continuing to strengthen our business with initiatives to offset our cost increase. Since the acquisition of Inchcape, we've implemented a series of headcount reductions, systems integration activities, and selective franchise closures and divestitures to improve operational efficiency and to better align our cost structure with current market conditions. Our headcount reductions have included approximately 700 positions across the UK, and our responsible portfolio management has resulted in the closure of four dealerships and the termination of eight franchises. We're making meaningful progress on systems integration. Across our UK business, we've completed the consolidation of 11 DMS platforms, and we're rolling out a new business intelligence system now.

We are also completing the final stages of our US-UK systems integration review, spanning approximately 90 different systems company-wide. These actions are improving visibility, operational consistency, and data-led decisions across the organization. In the third quarter, we formally notified Jaguar Land Rover of our decision to exit this brand in the UK within 24 months. We feel our efforts and some of our real estate can be more effectively utilized elsewhere. We are collaborating closely with our OEM partners at JLR to achieve a positive outcome for them and for Group 1 shareholders. It's our intention that this achieves a positive result for all concerned. Due to this decision, our UK portfolio was required to be tested for impairment. As a result, we took a $123.9 million asset impairment in the quarter.

Also important to note, this decision was unrelated to the JLR cyber attack, which separately impacted our UK profitability by approximately £3 million during the quarter. Those actions reflect our commitment to optimize our portfolio, control costs, and focus our resources on winning through operational excellence. We will continue to refine the UK business, managing our headcount, right-sizing our network, and prioritizing after-sales and F&I while leaning into our luxury platform and geographic diversity. This will position our UK business for long-term success. Now, turning to our UK operation, our US teams continue to execute very well, maintaining operational discipline and customer focus across our dealerships. As a result, the business delivered another solid quarter of growth with healthy performance across all major lines. Demand remained consistent throughout the quarter, supported by balanced inventory levels and steady consumer interest, which we believe to be relatively healthy in the US.

Our used vehicle units sold nearly set a record, only 40 units off of our all-time quarterly volume record. Our same-store sales in used vehicles outpaced the industry. F&I was outstanding once again with an all-time quarterly high PRU of nearly $2,500, combined with an impressive 77% new vehicle finance penetration. After-sales achieved record quarterly revenue and gross profit, underscoring the strength and stability of this high-margin business. Our investment in our after-sales operation continues to capture growth, and our initiatives around flexible scheduling, all-day Saturday operations, and technician productivity continue to create new capacity and improve retention across our U.S. stores. Same-store technician headcount increased by over 4% due to our recruitment and retention efforts. On a same-store basis, our customer pay revenue increased nearly 8%. Warranty was up 16% versus a prior year comp that saw 20% growth.

We continue to believe in the potential of our after-sales business, and we also believe that capacity and productivity are the keys to success. The overall U.S. environment remains dynamic with ongoing policy and trade uncertainty. We're maintaining a cautious but confident stance, balancing discipline and spending with targeted investment where we see long-term return. Our operational excellence is a key advantage, giving us the ability to adjust quickly to changing conditions. Now, a word about our capital allocation. In August, we added Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead in Atlanta, Georgia, to our portfolio. It's expected to be one of the best-performing stores in the U.S. for Group 1 Automotive. It's positioned in a growing market and consistent with our cluster strategy and our disciplined focus on pursuing only those opportunities that will create long-term shareholder value. Just as importantly, we continue to opportunistically buy back shares of our company.

Since the beginning of 2022, we've repurchased nearly one-third of the company's outstanding common shares. The acquisition landscape has been fairly quiet in recent months, and we continue to engage in researching opportunities in the U.S., but we are holding on further UK acquisition investment. We expect consolidation to continue in the future in both markets, and we believe we're well-positioned with our OEM partners to capitalize on those kinds of opportunities. Now, I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Daniel McHenry, for an operating and financial overview.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Daryl, and good morning, everyone. In the third quarter of 2025, Group 1 Automotive reported quarterly record revenues of $5.8 billion, gross profit of $920 million, adjusted net income of $135 million, and adjusted diluted EPS of $10.45 from continuing operations. Starting with our U.S. operations, performance was strong across all business lines, both reported and same-store. Revenue growth was broad-based, led by record quarterly records in used vehicles, parts and service, and F&I. New vehicle unit sales rose mid-single digits on both the reported and same-store basis, reflecting healthy demand and steady inventory flow. While new vehicle GPUs continue to moderate from the highs of the past few years, we have maintained strong operational discipline through effective cost management and process consistency. Expiring tax credits lead to increased BEV deliveries in the quarter at lower GPUs, negatively affecting U.S. new vehicle GPUs by approximately 6%.

Our used vehicle operations performed well, with record quarterly revenue and GPUs holding up well, with only a slight 3% decline on a same-store and as-reported basis. These results reflect the benefits of our scale and operational flexibility, combined with our team's focus on disciplined sourcing and pricing in a competitive market. Our third quarter F&I GPUs grew over 5%, or $135 and $126 on a reported and same-store basis versus the prior year comparable period, respectively. The performance by our F&I professionals has been outstanding to maintain GPU discipline while driving higher product penetration across nearly all product categories. After-sales once again stood out as a major contributor, achieving record quarterly revenue and gross profit. Gross profit continues to benefit from our efforts to optimize our collision footprint, shifting collision space opportunistically to additional traditional service capacity and closing collision centers where returns do not meet our requirements.

After-sales remains one of our strongest engines of growth and stability. Overall, our U.S. business continues to perform exceptionally well, demonstrating both the strength of the consumer demand and the effectiveness of our disciplined, process-driven operating model. Wrapping up the U.S., let's shift to SG&A. While the U.S. adjusted SG&A as a percentage of gross profit increased 160 basis points sequentially to 65.8%, we view this as a good performance. We continue to focus on resource management and technology investments to maintain SG&A as a % of gross profit below pre-COVID levels as vehicle GPUs further normalized. Turning to the UK, results have reflected a challenging operating environment. However, same-store revenues grew across almost every line of business. New vehicle same-store volumes declined 4% and local currency GPUs moderated by 1% versus the prior year quarter, leading to a 6% decline in local currency same-store new vehicle revenues.

Used vehicle same-store revenues were up over 5% on a local currency basis, with volumes up 4%. However, same-store GPUs declined by over 24% on a local currency basis, leading to a similar decline in same-store used vehicle GPU, reflecting the challenging used vehicle market in the UK. After-sales and F&I year-over-year growth in both revenue and gross profit. The after-sales business remains an important stabilizer within the UK operations, along with F&I as a key area of focus as we work to enhance profitability. Same-store F&I PRU reached $1,106, with as reported and same-store PRU both increasing more than 15% year over year. On expenses, SG&A increased from the prior period, reflecting cost inflation and integration-related impacts, as well as a lack of gross profit for the full quarter from our JLR operations due to the cyber attack.

While we have executed target restructuring initiatives to improve efficiency and return the business to more sustainable cost levels, costs continue to increase, some of it government-imposed through increased payroll tax-related charges. During the quarter, we also incurred modest non-recurring restructuring charges tied to our restructuring efforts. In response to current market conditions, we are taking further actions to reduce our corporate headcount by approximately an additional 10%, and we are taking additional expense actions to save an expected $8 million in our stores. We will benefit from these savings in 2026. We will also be executing additional restructuring plans in future periods as we exit select OEM sites. In connection to the notification with JLR, we recognized a franchise rights impairment charge of $18.1 million, which is included in the impairment charge that Daryl mentioned earlier.

We are taking decisive actions in the UK to control costs, strengthen operational efficiency, and position the business for improved returns as market conditions stabilize. Turning to our balance sheet and liquidity, our strong balance sheet, cash flow generation, and leverage position will continue to support a flexible capital allocation approach. As of September 30, our liquidity of $1 billion was composed of accessible cash of $434 million and $555 million available to borrow on our acquisition line. Our rent-adjusted leverage ratio, as defined by our U.S. syndicated credit facility, was 2.9 times at the end of September. Cash flow generation through the third quarter of 2025 yielded $500 million of adjusted operating cash flow and $352 million of free cash flow after biking out $148 million of CapEx.

This capital was deployed in the quarter through a combination of acquisitions, share repurchases, and dividends, including the acquisition of $210 million in revenues, $82 million repurchasing approximately 186,000 shares at an average price of $443.81, and $6.4 million in dividends to our shareholders. Subsequent to the third quarter, we repurchased an additional 140,000 shares under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan at an average price of $433.48 for a total cost of $60.9 million, resulting in an approximate 5% reduction in share counts since January 1. We currently have $165.4 million remaining on our board-authorized common share repurchase program. For additional detail regarding our financial condition, please refer to the schedules of additional information attached to the news release, as well as the investor presentation posted on our website. I will now turn the call over to the operator to begin the question and answer session.

Speaker 5

Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypads. If you are using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please pick up your handset prior to pressing the keys. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. We do ask that you please limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question today comes from Bret Jordan from Jefferies. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 7

Hey, good morning, guys.

Morning, Brett.

Some of your peers have talked about a U.S. luxury trend softening. Could you sort of give us any color on what you're seeing at the consumer, maybe luxury versus import versus domestic demand trends in GPUs?

Speaker 2

Bret, I wouldn't say that what we've seen is material enough yet to call it a trend. You've seen a little bit of a shift between some of the big banks. Audi is certainly, you know, a challenge. I'm not sure that's consumer-related, but we saw a little bit of inventory build in some of the luxury makes in the third quarter. I think the real tell will be the fourth quarter, which typically is the largest quarter of the year for the luxury makes and especially the Germans. Before I think we would say we see a softening there, I'd want to see how the fourth quarter kind of shakes out and where that heads, to be honest with you. Pete, Daniel may have another view based on their perspective.

Yeah, Bret, this is Pete DeLongchamps. I would tell you that our Lexus business remains very, very strong. Our BMW dealerships did well in the quarter. I echo Daryl's comment. The Audi business is certainly difficult.

Speaker 7

Okay. A question on the JLR exit, I guess, within 24 months. It sounded as if you might be reallocating some of those properties to other brands, or is this, you know, when you think about the business?

Speaker 2

Yeah, we own the vast majority of that real estate. We've had some reviews of how it might be used in better ways, primarily automotive, other brands potentially. Some of them will stay JLR and transition to another owner. Others, just through the consolidation work going on in the UK with all the OEMs, might provide an opportunity for us in some of our cluster markets and other brands. Some of that's still being determined. That is an outcome that's a possibility. Yeah, absolutely, Bret.

Speaker 7

Okay. The housekeeping, I guess, of the $124 million impairment, $18 million of that was JLR?

Speaker 4

It's Daniel here, Bret. It's a combination there. In terms of our franchise rights, $18 million was JLR. What that did was by terminating the JLR franchise, it triggered us to have to look at the UK entity as a whole and take a goodwill impairment. That goodwill impairment is not just JLR specific. It's the entity as a whole. Some percentage of the circa $100 million remaining will be relating to JLR. So $18 million plus some percentage of the total business unit.

Speaker 5

Our next question comes from Rajat Gupta from JPMorgan. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 2

Thanks for taking the questions. Just to follow up on Bret's question, on the UK, the reallocation of capacity question, would you consider partnering with some of the Chinese brands here? Clearly, it looks like they're gaining a lot of share, putting some pressure on the legacy brands that you own. Curious if there's any thought process around that of maybe increasing exposure there. I have a quick follow-up. Rajat, Daryl, we have met with some of the Chinese OEMs about representing them. We continue to consider that and review that. We've also looked at that part of the industry and where we believe it's going in the UK. We believe for the next several years, it will be primarily mass-market focused and not luxury. At some point, we'll certainly get a luxury business. Our focus in the UK is primarily luxury. We have looked at it.

What we want to make sure that we are comfortable with is that the retail model is a good one for our shareholders. The rooftop throughput at retail for the Chinese brands is still quite low. The economics around these rooftops aren't what our other stores can generate at this point. We realize, obviously, they're growing. We want to make sure that we're positioned well to take advantage of that if there's an opportunity. We are having some active dialogue with them. Got it. That's helpful. On the used GPUs in the US, it seemed like it pulled back quite a bit sequentially, also down year over year. I'm wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more on that. Was it just some of the tariff tailwinds from the previous quarter going away, maybe some higher price in winter that came with the quarter?

Or is it just a sign of a more competitive landscape on the used car side? Any thoughts there would be helpful. Thanks.

Speaker 4

Rajat, it's Pete DeLongchamps. We've certainly seen stabilization in the used car business, but it does remain very competitive in the acquisition landscape of used cars. I think we've done a really good job of maintaining discipline with our auction purchases. The majority of our cars come from trades and customer outside purchases. It's a business right now that is dependent on how well you can acquire and how quickly you can turn. I think we maintained a 30-day or 31-day supply again. We're comfortable with the performance of the used car operation in the current landscape.

Speaker 2

Got it. Okay, great. Thanks for the color. I'll jump back in here.

Speaker 5

Our next question comes from Jeffrey Francis Lick from Stephens Inc. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 3

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering, Daniel or Daryl, if you wouldn't mind just giving some detail on the parts and service in the U.S. and the dynamics here. You know, customer pay up 8%, warranty up 16%. Just as we go forward, is there anything that would skew the gross margin percentage, which obviously flows into gross profit dollars? The dynamics, and we're lapping some tough comparison now. Any color would be helpful.

Speaker 2

The encouraging thing, Jeff, this is Daryl, and I'm sure Daniel has a comment. The encouraging thing is our customer count grew. In the UK, it grew almost 6% year over year. In the U.S., it grew 3%. We were really pleased that we're adding, you know, customers to our shops, not just dollars. We feel like our CP business is still healthy, and we feel like there's a lot of opportunity there. Warranty is really tough to predict sometimes, obviously. We don't see any reason for necessarily a mix change. One thing that is happening is, you know, a margin mix change, I should say, is the collision business is getting weaker, and that can affect margin because a lot of our wholesale parts sales go to the collision industry.

Overall, after-sales margin may be helped by that on a percentage basis if the wholesale parts continue to decline, at least in the collision sector. On CP and on warranty, we haven't seen that. I know there's been some discussion on margin percentages by some in the industry, but we haven't necessarily seen that. We don't necessarily really predict that either. Daniel, I don't know if you have anything to add.

Speaker 4

Jeff, the only thing that I would add around was, you know, customer pay, as Daryl says, continues to be strong. U.S. specific, we've grown by about 8% year on year. In terms of warranty, we've grown by just over 16% year on year. As we talked about in the earnings call, collision is down. We've closed a number of our smaller collision centers, turning those into customer pay work, and it's down about 11% on the quarter. The result of that is that our margin mix as a total company is trading upwards, and our margin mix has gone up from about 54% to 55.2% in the quarter.

Speaker 2

CP margin was up year over year for us, and so was warranty margin.

Speaker 3

Just a quick follow-up. I think maybe this is one for Pete. On your slide 14, you guys do a good job of always disclosing the retention by model year, which I don't think your peers necessarily disclose. Could you talk a little bit about, I believe you guys are well north of what would be typical and just the dynamics there?

Speaker 4

This is on parts and service overview?

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 4

Retention?

Speaker 3

I think what we're working on starts with the sale. If you take a look, Jeff, at our overall consistency with vehicle service contracts and maintenance, we are completely focused on getting our customers back into our shops. We do that through constant follow-up and by ensuring that pricing is right, making sure the schedules are wide open for appointments. I think that when you take a look at the trend we've had over the years, we've done a remarkable job with it, and this is where we've landed at 68+%.

Speaker 2

One of the things that we focus on, you know, the way we measure retention is two visits in a year. Other people measure it differently. OEMs all measure it differently. We wanted a standard number we could use inside Group 1 Automotive across all our stores. The key in the future is the average mileage goes up. The age of the cars is still going up. Our average mileage in our service drives is almost 70,000 miles. Really, the key for us to continue to grow customer pay is in reaching those higher mileage older vehicles.

One of the keys to doing that is when we vertically integrated our own data management with our customers starting about a year ago so that we now have a much clearer view, much better view of where our customers are going and when they're likely to need service next using propensity modeling and things like that that help us do that. We have to be able to reach deeper into that ownership cycle as time goes. We're really working hard on that, really working hard on that.

Speaker 3

The results show. Thanks for taking the question and best of luck in the next quarter.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Speaker 5

Our next question comes from Daniela Haigian from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 8

Great. Thank you. One on forward demand. We've kind of passed through the peak tariff fear from April. We're now seeing OEMs revise up their guidances, clearing the bar on these improved gross tariff impacts. Are you seeing any decontenting or changing in pricing on new model year vehicles in excess of the normal price hikes? How are you thinking about that going into next year?

Speaker 2

We haven't seen anything in excess of normal price hikes, Daniela. We've seen a little recontenting. I wouldn't say it's normal. There hasn't been any broad announcements about major pricing. There have been a couple of specific pricing actions with smaller OEMs. As we think about it and in more discussions we have with our OEM partners, they are taking a longer view on it, and they're going to try to recover the tariff impacts over a longer period of time. Some of that, they will absorb most of it in general. We're seeing very little, very little pricing that can be attributable to tariff increases. I think that will continue, to be honest with you, unless something radically changes with the tariffs. We think that's probably what will happen. Pete may have some more.

Speaker 4

No, I think, Daryl, you've covered it. The only thing I would add is if you take a look at the financial services companies and with the strength of the financial services companies can bring down some of those additional costs through leasing or subvened rates, which bodes well for those OEMs that have strong financial services companies.

Speaker 8

Got it. That's helpful. One more, maybe Pete, for you also.

Speaker 2

Our captive lenders are really a real advantage, we feel like. We, you know, they drive loyalty. They drive finance attachment, and that's a real key for Group 1.

Speaker 8

Absolutely. Absolutely. In that vein on auto credit, obviously, there's a lot of headlines out there. Obviously, Group 1 skews much higher on the credit quality curve. Just as investors continue to focus on risk to the consumer, have you seen any change in consumer behavior in the last few weeks, starting the fourth quarter?

Speaker 4

We have not seen a change in consumer behavior. Actually, we're seeing increased penetration rates on new and used. Most of the headlines are centered around the deep subprime, which we don't play in. I channel checked the majority of our lenders prior to this call, and the business continues to be robust. There's still a lot of appetite with the lenders to make car loans with us and our customers.

Speaker 8

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 5

Our next question comes from Glenn Chin from Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 0

Good morning, folks. Thank you. I guess just a couple of questions on the UK. Just broadly on the macro, I mean, this used to be close to a 2.5 million unit market. Can I just ask where you see it settling out? What needs to be done to improve it? I mean, is it lower energy costs or government incentives? Does it need to get worse before it gets better?

Speaker 2

It doesn't need to get worse before it gets better. What has to happen is the throughput per rooftop has to grow. The margins were steady year over year. The after-sales business is healthy. We've got work to do on costs, as we've mentioned. The OEMs are all working to try to rationalize their networks to a level that meets today's SAR of around 2 million, rather than the 2.5 million that you referenced, Glenn. As we take rooftops out, that should improve the throughput of the remaining networks. They're all working feverishly on that. Some of them are, in our opinion, taking a healthier approach than others. Groups like Volkswagen, groups like Mercedes-Benz, groups like BMW are doing a really great job working with their dealer partners to try to effect that. I think their outcomes are going to be really good, really healthy.

That's a real key, to try to get the throughput per rooftop up to a better level. While we continue to take costs out, we'll continue to do that and focus on that. Daniel may have something to add.

Speaker 4

Glenn, there's a couple of things that I would add. If you look at the forward-looking SAR curve for the UK, it's pretty static out over the next five years in terms of approximately 2 million. I think the important thing for us as a company is that the premium sector within that 2 million remains pretty constant with a little uptick over the next five-year period. Now, in terms of the UK government, at this moment in time, they continue to be taxing both the consumer and the business fairly heavily. I can't really see that changing in the short term. As Daryl rightly says, there's a lot that we can still do around cost.

Equally so, we bought a lot of stores over the last 18 months, and we are working on portfolio rationalization, which I think will make the business a much stronger business coming out of that in 18 months' time.

Speaker 0

With respect to that rationalization, Daniel, can you give us a feel or some perspective on how much more needs to be done? You took $124 million in impairment this quarter. How much more needs to go?

Speaker 4

In terms of impairment, we've taken impairment for your JLR as a franchise. We took effectively a goodwill impairment on our whole company. If I look at our forward-looking projections for that, I would say I would be fairly confident, all things being equal, that we have taken the impairment that's required for us to take as a company. In terms of other things that we would dispose of, typically, they're going to be smaller stores or underperforming stores that have little or no goodwill attributed to those stores, certainly in terms of franchise rights. I wouldn't expect there to be any additional impairment. Equally, we've totally impaired the Jaguar Land Rover franchise. We will be able to sell those for some element of goodwill or some element of value. We should see some upside coming out of that.

Speaker 2

Glenn, if you look at how we've managed our portfolio in the U.S. over the last four years, we've sold smaller underperforming stores in the U.S., or divested of those, or closed some of those. It's a similar approach that we're taking in the U.K.

Speaker 0

Yep. Portfolio optimization. We're optimizing, I should say.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we like to.

Speaker 0

Just one last question on JLR. What is different about the franchise in the UK versus in the US or your stores for that matter? Do you have a different view of the JLR franchise in the US?

Speaker 2

When you look at where some of our UK JLR stores are, they're close to London, and London had some of the highest theft issues, which affected insurability on those vehicles. You saw the order banks dry up very quickly in those brands and in those zip codes right around London. That didn't recover, really, Glenn. When you look at that and then you look at how much those stores are contributing or losing, what we really firmly believe at Group 1 Automotive is we've got to put our focus and attention and efforts in the areas that are going to drive the best shareholder return for our constituencies. When we looked at it and assessed it, it wasn't an overnight decision, obviously. It was something we've considered for some time. We just felt like our efforts are better with some of our other partners.

I also hope and believe in my conversations with the OEM on this that they can go get partners that they feel like they can be successful with. Given the real estate that we have with JLR and given the location of those sites and just the outlook in general of it, we felt like our efforts were going to be much better utilized and the returns much better in our other brands.

Speaker 0

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Speaker 5

Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's question and answer session. We do thank you for joining today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.