10/28/2025

speaker
Jamie
Conference Operator

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 DeLongshaw, Group 1's Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services. Please go ahead, Mr. DeLongshaw.

speaker
Pete DeLongshaw
Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services

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 include reconciliations related to the adjusted results we will refer to on this call for comparison purposes have been posted to Group 1'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, Darrell 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 Darrell.

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone. Let me start with a few highlights from the quarter before discussing our regional performance Group 1 delivered an all-time record quarterly revenues driven by record results in parts of service and used vehicles, along with another quarter of very strong F&I performance in both the U.S. and the U.K. 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 percent on an as-reported and same-store basis. Now, turning to our U.K. operation, the U.K. 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 US after sales playbook across our UK dealerships. For example, in the UK, our stores now welcome walk-in customers, which we had previously limited. And we have fully reopened shop schedules, cutting appointment wait times from nearly two weeks to just a few days. And 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 process. 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 Ingecape, 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 impairments. 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 pounds 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 operations. 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 and used vehicle 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 US 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 Beckhead in Atlanta, Georgia, to our portfolio. It's expected to be one of the best-performing stores in the U.S. for Group 1. 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 companies. 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. We continue to engage in researching opportunities in the U.S., but we are holding on further U.K. 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 kind of opportunities. Now I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Daniel McHenry, for an operating and financial overview.

speaker
Daniel McHenry
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Daniel McHenry Thank you, Darrell, 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 vehicle, 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 the 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. AfterShills 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 percent 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 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, it's 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 Darrell 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 flexible capital allocation approach. As of September 30th, 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 backing 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 10b-5-1 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 the 1st. 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
Jamie
Conference Operator

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.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster.

speaker
Jamie
Conference Operator

And our first question today comes from Brett Jordan from Jefferies. Please go ahead with your question.

speaker
Brett Jordan
Analyst, Jefferies

Hey, good morning, guys.

speaker
Pete DeLongshaw
Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services

Good morning, Brett.

speaker
Brett Jordan
Analyst, Jefferies

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, you know, maybe luxury versus import versus domestic, you know, demand trends and GPUs?

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

You know, Brett, I wouldn't say that what we've seen is material enough yet to call it a trend. You've seen a A little bit of shift between some of the big banks. Audi is certainly, you know, a challenge. I'm not sure that's consumer related. But, you know, 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 fourth quarter, which typically is, you know, the largest quarter of the year for the luxury makes and especially the Germans. And so, you know, 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. And Peter, Daniel may have another view based on their perspective.

speaker
Pete DeLongshaw
Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services

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

speaker
Brett Jordan
Analyst, Jefferies

Okay. And then 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 – when you think about –

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we own the vast majority of that real estate. And 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. and then others just through the consolidation work going on in the UK with all the OEMs, it might provide an opportunity for us in some of our cluster markets with other brands. Some of that's still being determined, but that is an outcome that's a possibility. Yeah, absolutely, Brett.

speaker
Brett Jordan
Analyst, Jefferies

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

speaker
Daniel McHenry
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So it's Daniel here, Brett. It's a combination there. So in terms of our franchise rights, 18 million was JLR. Now, 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. Now, that goodwill impairment is not just JLR specific, it's the entity as a whole. So some percentage of the circa 100 million remaining will be relating to JLR. So 18 plus some percentage of the total business unit.

speaker
Jamie
Conference Operator

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

speaker
Rajat Gupta
Analyst, JP Morgan

Thanks for taking the questions. Just to follow up on Brett's question, you know, on the UK, you know, just reallocation of capacity question. Would you consider, you know, partnering with some of the Chinese brands here? It really looks like, you know, they're getting a lot of share, you know, putting some pressure on, you know, the legacy brands that you own. I'm curious if there's any thought process around that or maybe increasing exposure there. I have a quick follow-up.

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Rajat, Daryl, we have met with some of the Chinese OEMs about representing them, and we continue to consider that and review that. 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 the luxury business. Our focus in the UK is primarily luxury. But 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, and the economics around each rooftop aren't what our other stores can generate at this point. But 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.

speaker
Rajat Gupta
Analyst, JP Morgan

Got it. Got it. That's helpful. And then, you know, just on the used GPUs in the U.S., 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, you know, some of the tariff tailwinds from the previous quarter going away? Maybe some, you know, higher price in Rintree that came with the quarter? Or is it just a sign of just more competitive landscape on the used car side? Any thoughts there would be helpful.

speaker
Pete DeLongshaw
Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services

Thanks. Rajat, it's Pete DeLongshaw. We've certainly seen stabilization through 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. But it's a business right now that is dependent on how well you can acquire and how quickly you can turn. I think we've maintained a 31-day supply again. So we're comfortable with the performance of the used car operation in the current landscape.

speaker
Rajat Gupta
Analyst, JP Morgan

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

speaker
Jamie
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Jeff Lick from Stevens Inc. Please go ahead with your question.

speaker
Jeff Lick
Analyst, Stevens Inc.

Good morning. Yeah, 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 eight warranty up 16. There's just, as we go forward, you know, is there anything that would skew the, you know, the gross margin percentage, which obviously flows into gross profit dollars, just the dynamics and we're laughing, laughing, uh, some tough compares now, just any color would be helpful.

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, the encouraging thing, Jeff, this is Daryl and I'm sure Daniel has a comment. The encouraging thing is our, our customer count grew. In the UK, it grew almost 6% year-over-year. In the U.S., it grew 3%. So we're really pleased that we're adding customers to our shops, not just dollars. And so 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. And we don't see any reason for necessarily a mixed change. One thing that is happening is, you know, the, I mean, a margin mix change, I should say, is the collision business is, you know, it's getting weaker and that can affect margin because a lot of the wholesale parts sales go to the collision industry. And So overall after-sales margin may be helped by that on a percentage basis. So if the wholesale parts continue to decline, so at least the collision sector. But 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. So Daniel, I don't know if you have anything to add.

speaker
Daniel McHenry
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Jeff, you know, 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. Now, 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 and work, and it's down about 11% on the quarter. Now, 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
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

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

speaker
Jeff Lick
Analyst, Stevens Inc.

Just a quick follow-up, I think 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 that. 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
Pete DeLongshaw
Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services

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

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

Jeff, 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 one across all our stores, and Well, you know, the key in the future is the average mileage goes up, the age of the cars is still going up. You know, our average mileage in our service drives is almost 70,000 miles. And really the key for us to continue to grow customer pay is in reaching those higher mileage, older vehicles. And one of the keys to doing that is when we vertically integrated our own data management for 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. And so we have to be able to reach deeper into that ownership cycle as time goes, and we're really working hard on that, really working hard.

speaker
Jeff Lick
Analyst, Stevens Inc.

Well, the results show. Thanks for taking the question, and best of luck in the next quarter. Thank you.

speaker
Jamie
Conference Operator

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

speaker
Daniela Hajian
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Great. Thank you. So 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? And how are you thinking about that going into next year?

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

We haven't seen anything in excess of normal price hikes, Daniela. We've seen a little recontenting. I would say it's normal. There hasn't been any broad announcements about major pricing. There's 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 is 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 and some of that they will absorb most of it in general and we're seeing very little pricing that can be attributable to tariff increases. And 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. And Pete may have some more.

speaker
Pete DeLongshaw
Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services

I think, Darrell, you've discovered it. The only thing I would add is if you take a look at the financial services companies and the strength of the financial services companies can bring down those some of those additional costs through leasing or subvened rates, which bodes well for those OEMs that have strong financial services companies.

speaker
Daniela Hajian
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Got it. That's helpful. And then one more, maybe, Pete, for you.

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

Our captive lenders are a real advantage, we feel like. And they drive loyalty. They drive finance attachment. And that's a real key for group one.

speaker
Daniela Hajian
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Absolutely, absolutely. And then in that vein on auto credit, obviously there's a lot of headlines out there, and obviously Group 1 skews much higher on the credit quality curve, but 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
Pete DeLongshaw
Senior Vice President, Manufacturer Relations and Financial Services

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. So, you know, I channel checked the majority of our lenders prior to this call, and the business continues to be robust, and there's still a lot of appetite with the lenders to make car loans with us and our customers.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Great. Thank you.

speaker
Jamie
Conference Operator

And our next question comes from Glenn Chin from Seaport Research. Please go ahead with your question.

speaker
Glenn Chin
Analyst, Seaport Research

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

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

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. And the OEMs are all working to try to rationalize their networks to a level that you know, meets today's SAR of around $2 million rather than, you know, the $2.5 million that you referenced, Glenn. So as we take rooftops out, that should improve the throughput of the remaining networks, and they're all working feverishly on that. Some of them are, in our opinion, taking a healthier approach than others. You know, groups like Volkswagen, groups like Mercedes-Benz, groups like BMW are doing are doing a really great job working with their dealer partners to try to affect that. And I think their outcomes are going to be really good, really healthy. But that's a real key, is to try to get the throughput per rooftop up to a better level. And then while we continue to take costs out, we'll continue to do that and focus on that. Daniel may have something to add.

speaker
Daniel McHenry
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

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. In terms of you know, the UK government at this moment in time, they continue to be taxing both the consumer and the business fairly heavily. And, you know, I can't really see that changing in the short term. But as Daryl so rightly says, there's a lot that we can still do around cost. And equally so, you know, we've 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
Glenn Chin
Analyst, Seaport Research

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

speaker
Daniel McHenry
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

In terms of impairment, we've taken impairment for JLR as a franchise, and 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. So I wouldn't expect there to be any additional impairment. Equally so, you know, we've totally impaired the Jaguar Land Rover franchise and we will be able to sell those for some element of goodwill or some element of value. So we should see some upside coming out of that.

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

And 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. And so it's a similar approach that we're taking in the U.K.,

speaker
Glenn Chin
Analyst, Seaport Research

Yeah, portfolio rationalization. We're optimizing, I should say. Just one last question on JLR. So what is different about the franchise in the U.K. versus in the U.S. or your stores for that matter? Do you have a different view of the JLR franchise in the U.S.?

speaker
Darrell Kenningham
President and Chief Executive Officer

Oh, when you look at where some of our U.K. JLR stores are, they're They're close to London. And London had some of the highest theft issues which affected insurability on those vehicles. And you saw the order banks dry up very quickly in those brands. And then in those zip codes right around London. And that didn't recover really, Glenn. And so when you look at that and then you look at how much those stores are contributing or losing, And what we really firmly believe at Group 1 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. And so when we looked at it and assessed it, and 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, you know, some of our other partners, and We also hope and believe, and in my conversations with the OEM on this, that they can go get partners that they feel like they can be successful with. But 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
Operator
Conference Operator

Very good. Thank you.

speaker
Jamie
Conference Operator

And 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.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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