Autotrader Group Plc (ATDRF) Q4 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning everyone and welcome to Autotrader's four-year results for the year ending on the 31st of March 2024. As usual, I'm joined by our COO, Catherine, and our CFO, Jamie, who will be both presenting and joining me later for Q&A. It has been another year of strong financial, operational and strategic progress for Autotrader, building on the consistent performance displayed since our IPO in 2015. It is testament to the strength of our marketplace and the partnerships that we're building with our customers. We've seen record levels of demand and consumer engagement on our platform. We have increasing numbers of customers relying on our data and technology services to run their businesses, and we've made good progress on our strategic initiatives, which provide a meaningful opportunity to extend our role in car buying and retailing. I'd like to say thank you to our people, customers, shareholders, and wider stakeholders for their continued trust in our organization. Starting with some of the highlights during the year. At a group level, revenue grew 14% and operating profit grew 26%. Within the core auto trader business, revenue growth was 12%, driven by double digit growth across all revenue segments. Trade, consumer services, and manufacturer and agency, which is the first time this has been the case since our IPO. Core AutoTrader operating profit grew by 14% and margins increased to 71%. Trade revenue performance was largely driven by our retailer segment, where average revenue per retailer, or ARPA, grew 12%. This was underpinned by a strong pricing and product event in April 2023, where we launched our second module of AutoTrader Connect. We've also continued to see strong adoption of our additional products and services, including high-level packages and ne...