Australian Dealers under pressure after a drop in profitability in August would be relieved to see those figures rebound in September.

A drop to 1.6% in net profit as a percentage of sales (NP%S) in August was followed by a 2.3% result in September, compared to 2.4% for the year to date (YTD).

The Deloitte Dealer Profitability Report for September showed that Queensland enjoyed the best month of any state, recording 3.2% NP%S. That was thanks to a 14% rise in selling gross from the August result.

Western Australia is the state in the biggest trouble, with an NP%S in September of just 0.3% – the same as the previous month. The overall sales and gross decreased from August to September, but an increase in selling gross kept the NP%S result the same.

Victoria/Tasmania had a good result, with NP%S rising from 1.2% in August to 2.0% in September. Likewise NSW/ACT, which saw a rise from 1.8% to 2.4%. South Australia/Northern Territory fell from 2.0% to 1.9%.

Segments

For the second month in a row, the luxury segment led the way, with an NP%S of 2.8%. It was the only segment to record a monthly result above its YTD figure of 2.6%.

Next in line was the prestige segment at 2.4%, followed by the volume segment at 2.1%. Prestige had the greatest month-on-month growth of 0.8% compared to August.