Inter Cars puts trucks first this year and forecasts an increase in revenues of Capital Group by about 8 - 12 percent.

 

– This year we are focussed mostly on growth in the segment of heavy goods vehicles and tyres  – informed Robert Kierzek, President of the Board of Inter Cars in an interview with Newseria Inwestor agency. – The market of spare parts for passenger cars is much saturated, there is strong competition, so it is difficult to generate spectacular growth in this area. But we are still going to grow faster than the market.  We expect that the whole Capital Group will be able to generate a growth of around 8 to 12 percent. 

 

According to Polish Association of Automotive Industry (PZPM), in April this year 32,554 new passenger cars and commercial vehicles up to 3.5 ton were registered, an increase by 3.9 percent in comparison to the same month a year ago and a decrease by 15.1 percent in comparison to March.  The number of passenger cars grew by 28,526, as a result of favourable economic situation, according to the analysts of PZPM.  After two months of decreases, the market recorded a small increase in registration of new cars (by 1.7%) in comparison to the same month a year before. 

 

The market of commercial vehicles (up to 3.5 tons) grows a bit faster.  The pace of growth (in comparison to April a year ago) was more than one fifth (22.4 percent).  In April, there were in total 4,028 new cars registered in this segment.  Following the seasonal trend it was less than a month before (by 15.2%), nevertheless from the beginning of the year the positive trend in this segment of vehicles is getting stronger, and after four months of the year the pace of change reached 15,8 per cent. 15,914 vehicles found new owners. 

– We are sure that increase in the segment of vehicles up to 3.5 tons of loading capacity will be expressed with a two-digit number – announced Robert Kierzek. – But it is hard to forecast anything in details at this moment. But we have made a lot of investment in stock, as well as in sales structures.  All this should result in much higher increase than in our market segment, where we sell spare parts for passenger cars. 

 

Inter Cars is the biggest in Poland importer and distributor of automotive spare parts. The Company's product range also includes garage equipment, in particular devices for service and repairs of cars and parts for motorcycles and tuning. The Company has 310 branches, 172 of them in Poland. Strategic aims of the company are development of  distribution chain and constant improvement of logistics processes. 

 

– Foreign subsidiaries develop much faster, so development of distribution chain there will be much bigger than on domestic market – said the President of Inter Cars. – In the country we are present in all big cities. In many of them, there are more than one branch, so now it is time to go to smaller towns with several or several dozen citizens.  Our newest branch was open in Jarosław. 

In Poland, the Group has a central warehouse in Czosnó and three Regional Distribution Centres.  Efficient logistic chain made dynamic growth of sales possible by now, but the logistics potential that the Company has (storing area, logistics technologies and IT systems) for some time now might have been slowing down the development and being a barrier for dynamic growth of the Group. That is why ILS, logistics subsidiary of the Group, is currently building a logistic centre in Zakroczym, close to Warsaw-Modlin Airport, where there will be 200 new work places generated for people.  The new logistic management centre will be realizing the following tasks: accepting the goods from suppliers, order realization, order picking, breaking bulk and returns of goods, and cross-docking. The investment will cost over PLN 150 million and the total storage area will reach 40k square meters.  On Wednesday, May the 27th there was official signing of erection act for this investment. 

 

– This is our biggest investment task in the last few years, the construction has already started, right now there are works on the construction of a hall – said the President - Kierzek. – Our plan is ambitious: we want to finish the investment in the middle of the following year. It shall be the most modern logistics centre for the automotive spare parts distribution in Europe, combined with inter-warehouse logistics solutions which no-one in this industry has. 

 

Despite the investment, Inter Cars does not intend to change its dividend policy and wants to share, at least some part of the profit, with the shareholders.  For the previous year, the Supervisory Board approved payment of PLN 10m out of PLN 95.7m of profit to the shareholders. 

 

– Dynamic growth requires access to financial resources. Of course we are also using external financing, when there is such a need. But the dividend policy which the company has had for the last few years seems to be good, as it builds trust of investors to our shares and company – convinces Kierzek.

 

After the first quarter of this year, the sales revenue of Inter Cars Group reached the level of PLN 982.5m and were higher by 12% in comparison to the result for the same period a year ago.  The company recorded net profit amounting to PLN 35.8m in comparison to PLN 33.4m a year ago. 

 

Source: ceo. com. pl 

2015-05-26