Record new vehicle sales have helped Mazda Australia deliver its best-ever pre-tax profit of $78.8 million for the 15 months to 31 March 2004.

Vehicle wholesales of 68,174 over the 15 months pushed Mazda Australia’s revenue to $1.75 billion, giving the company a return on sales of 4.8 per cent.

Mazda Australia is reporting a 15-month financial period as the company is, at the request of its parent - Mazda Motor Corporation - moving from calendar year to the Japanese financial year, which runs from 1 April to 31 March.

The record pre-tax profit compares with $19.9 million for the 2002 calendar year. This result was struck on a total turnover of $992.4 million with wholesales reaching 39,421 vehicles.

Mazda’s 130-strong dealer network also delivered record retails, selling 55,042 vehicles from April 2003 to 31 March 2004, an increase of 27.3 per cent on the same period in 2002/2003.

The record retail performance gave Mazda Australia a market share of 5.9 per cent.

The managing director of Mazda Australia, Malcolm Gough, said: “Our record pre-tax profit is the result of Mazda’s global push to refocus and revitalise our brand around our Stylish, Insightful and Spirited DNA.

“Our new vehicles, headed by the 2003 Wheels Car Of The Year winning RX-8, are in record demand and demonstrate that Australian car buyers want an involving, high quality, great value motoring experience. Our Zoom-Zoom models are delivering exactly that.

“Our dedicated and committed dealer network and the continuing hard work of the entire Mazda Australia staff have also made a significant contribution to this result.

“With the introduction of the class-leading Mazda3 sedan and hatch as our fourth all-new model in less than two years we expect to push our sales benchmark to 55,000 retails this year. This result would mean Mazda has increased its retail sales by 99.9 per cent since 2000.”

Mazda Australia’s profit forecast for the 2004/2005 financial year shows a pre-tax profit of $43.7 million, with wholesales expected to reach 55,300.

Source: AutoNews - Mazda press release

well if you consider how much the 8 costs in Japan, compared to australia how can they not make a record profit.

And we all contributed :)

Stupid law and law prohibit cheap private import --- we will be still force to pay for more money or interior car than the JDM models....

:mad:

It is time for them to concentrate on customer serivce than promoting their make...

In regards to "Our dedicated and committed dealer network and the continuing hard work of the entire Mazda Australia staff have also made a significant contribution to this result.

~~~ really? ~~~~ ^^" where is the plan to bring MazdaSpeed products into Australia?

Good to see. A profitable company is a strong company. To illiustrate my point: who wants to buy a Mitsubishi right now??

Ed?

I think you'll find Ed gets his for free....! Or at least at a substantial discount!

gomez,I'm sure well all get the same discount the way mitsubishi is going :p

I'm tippin' you'll be paying a bit more for the rates on the AMG estate next year....the Lonsdale levy...:(

Mitshibushi in trouble hmmmmm .

May be a good time to make them an offer on the EVO III R .

This car eats WRX subarus for breakfeast .

be nice
michael

Originally posted by timbo
Good to see. A profitable company is a strong company. To illiustrate my point: who wants to buy a Mitsubishi right now??

I do! I want a evo 8 :D

Originally posted by Gomez
I think you'll find Ed gets his for free....! Or at least at a substantial discount!

Ahh - That might explain it ;p

well the evo viii will prob be the fastest car within that price range. but i still prefer the look of the rx-8 :)

It seems an especially sad and unfortunate piece of timing for Mitsubishi that their current TV ads have the theme of "See your Mitsubushi dealer yesterday" - after all, not too many people will be wanting to see them today or tomorrow now, given the position they're in. 'Yesterday's company' is looking like a pretty apt description right now. :(

I imagine that Mazda are now quietly hoovering up a nice slice of buyers who have put the brakes on buying a Mitsubishi.

Anybody know what the current market share charts look like? How are Mazda doing these days in overall relation to the traditional 'big guys' in the Aussie market?

Not sure about the answer to that Q BVD, but I'm sure Ford and Holden will be in trouble if Mitsu go under.....all three companies rely on the same local component suppliers in a lot of areas. Trim, HVAC, wheels etc.....some of these suppliers could follow Mitsubishi down......

Gomez.

That could be disaterous

Disasterous, yes, but Mitsubishi's plight reflects the obvious global nature of the MV industry. Because of this, Australia's component manufacturing industry must make sure it is hooked into these global supply chains, and not just the local MV manufacturers/assembly sector.

I, for one, am not in favour of supporting businesses that get in trouble because they have not faced and adapted to, the structural changes that have emerged over a relatively long period of time

Originally posted by BVD
It seems an especially sad and unfortunate piece of timing for Mitsubishi that their current TV ads have the theme of "See your Mitsubushi dealer yesterday" - after all, not too many people will be wanting to see them today or tomorrow now, given the position they're in. 'Yesterday's company' is looking like a pretty apt description right now. :(

I imagine that Mazda are now quietly hoovering up a nice slice of buyers who have put the brakes on buying a Mitsubishi.

Anybody know what the current market share charts look like? How are Mazda doing these days in overall relation to the traditional 'big guys' in the Aussie market?

http://www.mazda.com.au/currentnews.asp?articleZoneID=2968

6.4% pretty good, but going to hard to claw into the 3 above.

Not sure how many potential Mitsubishi customers will come to Mazda, I think on the whole they may be more Toyota bound than anything.

As for government support for Mitsubishi. No more please. Successive British governments poured a whole lot more into British Leyland over decades and they still went "tits up". If they can't stand reasonably unaided then it's I'm afraid it's time to face reality.

I heard from a mitsubishi sales man that mitsubishi have been bailed out from their subsiduary companies like mistu electrics.
maybe it was just talk who knows.

6.4% pretty good, but going to hard to claw into the 3 above.

Not sure how many potential Mitsubishi customers will come to Mazda, I think on the whole they may be more Toyota bound than anything.



Thanks very much for the link Kiwimeat. :)

I did find some figures for just the top 3 and, as you say, Toyota seems to be the one to beat these days. Comfortably ahead of Holden in April sales and way ahead of Ford. But all 3 still well in front of Mazda and the rest of the field.

I agree with you and Timbo about the futility of propping up failing industries. I guess that Mitsubishi are still frantically trying to convince everybody that they aren't failing, just going through a bad patch, but I don't know if they're having much luck convincing anybody yet.

I guess they can point to Mazda who came pretty close to the line not so long ago, but who now seem to be going very well indeed. Maybe the amount of money involved and the size of the problems are a lot bigger. I haven't really followed either the Mitsubishi thing or the Ford/Mazda relationship all that closely.

Local bail outs seem to be tied to quantity of affected voters these days, and I guess that Mitsubishi Australia does employ a lot of voters. Maybe they all need to cluster in a marginal seat so that the vote buying pays off. Seems to work for certain sections of primary industry.... :p

OK, take into account the following.

RX-8 (leather pack) - Japan = $35,700
RX-8 (leather pack) - USA = $41,400
RX-8 (leather pack) - Aust = $62,600

Apart from getting ripped off here. You can see why there are big profits for Mazda Australia getting posted.

When you look at the price difference for the USA model. You can see that Mazda USA are more interested in sales than ripping people off. A $6000 price difference over the Jap version would account for the shipping, duties & (reasonable) profits.

It's funny you know. Whilst I agree there is obvious disparity between the JDM prices, the US/NA prices, and our prices, I wonder if they would sell more here if they were a $41k vehicle? Or would people have the perception they were cheap and junky??

Also, I suppose they are making hay while the sun shines. Do you think after those years of the falling AUD and you could still get Astinas for $19,990 they were making big profits? I dunno - just trying to look at the question from various angles.

Cheers,
Hymee.