Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE:PAG) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Randall Seymore: So I’ll touch on the sourcing first in the U.K. So a similar shift. If you go back three years ago, we were getting 22% of all of our used cars from the OEM via some program. That’s down to 5%. But conversely, 13% of our cars, three years ago, we got directly from the consumer, meaning not a trade, but we were out proactively buying. That’s up to 29%. So from 13% to then as Roger said, focus on our trade has gone from 32% to 40% of all our used inventory. So if we call it self-sourced, you put it direct from consumer trade how we’re focusing intragroup, I bucket all those together, that’s 82% of all of our trades year-to-date are coming from that versus 58% three years ago.

Roger Penske: Now looking at the commitment to the brand, there’s no question we’re committed to the brand. We have 20 units now. We’ve got a location in the U.K., we’re planning to open up as soon as the supply opens up for us. So, we could be prudent from the standpoint of cost. In fact, to be honest with you, we had an operation in Phoenix that we opened up and because we didn’t have a supply and quite honestly, it was turning into a loss for us, we closed it and sold the building. So look, we’re not afraid to take the action one way or the other. But I would say it’s supply both in the U.S. and the U.K. We need 150 to 200 units more in the U.S. to get where we want to go, and I think we’re doing 5,000 units. Am I right, Randall in the U.K. on a monthly basis.

So it’s a big business right now, and we’re going to try to look at digitization in the U.K. to take costs out. And we can do that by certain things that we haven’t done in the past by giving certain functions of the sales process, either doing it technically or giving it to one person rather than having multiple managers in sales and delivery people handling. And we think that’s going to take some additional cost out over the next third and fourth quarter. So to me, it’s a great business. We’ve got a great brand when you look at CarShop both here and also in the U.K. And we think it’s an independent business, we run it that way. And quite honestly, overall, we’re just looking for volume.

Daniel Imbro: Got it. That’s all really helpful color. Thank you. And then maybe shifting to the commercial truck side. Rich, the Class 8 backlog is substantial that will support sales at least through this year and into next year. How do you think about – or can you talk about the risk into next year or maybe the freight backdrop remaining tough? How does that impact your freight customers’ willingness to turn over their fleets? And how does that weigh with the emission changes and obviously, service and parts is a natural hedge. If you could just talk through the moving pieces into 2024 as we think through how the industry works through backlog?

Richard Shearing: Yes. Thank you, Daniel. Just to comment on current environment. As you mentioned, the backlog is still very at 176,000 units, representing about six months of retail sales. So that’s going to carry us through the balance of this year. And so any allocation that we’ve received this year were completely sold out. As you mentioned, the emissions, there’s a greenhouse gas regulations go into effect in two steps, 2024 and 2027. For 2024, you normally have in advance of an emissions year a prebuy effect. And of course, the OEMs aren’t able to produce the vehicles, do supply chain challenges to take advantage of that. That’s going to be a buffer against what you would normally have as a hangover year when new emissions vehicles are launched, which would be next year.