Top car brands celebrate financial growth in 2022

Tuesday, 27 December 2022

Toyota New Zealand continues its march as the country’s most profitable car brand.

This year has proven to be a strong one for a raft of New Zealand motoring distributors, with many recording strong revenue and significant gains relative to other industries as 2022 draws to a close.

Deloitte released its annual Top 200 index earlier this month, plotting the performance of the most formidable companies in the country.

The introduction of an all-new Outlander has given Mitsubishi a spring in its step in 2022.

Numerous car brands were represented on the list, with the majority showing significant year-on-year improvements in their respective rankings on the industry list. Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Ford were among the local brands to star.

The Deloitte Top 200 ranks company performance based primarily on revenue data from each group’s previous financial year. The rankings also take into account numerous metrics in its calculation methodology, including revenue, EBITDA, total assets, return on assets, debt to equity ratio, and more.

Tony Bowater of Bowater Toyota, who is launching the Toyota Mobility Project, an app driven car share scheme in Nelson using hybrid, electric and low emission vehicles.

* Toyota announces new 'science-based' CO2 reductions targets

Toyota had also been nominated for the growth strategy prize at the Deloitte event.

* Explainer: What the hell is the Clean Car Standard?

* Toyota was the most searched car brand in 2021

Toyota New Zealand continues to lead the industry, leading the market in 28th position in the index (earning $1,465m in revenue), subsequently rising four positions on last year.

Colonial Motor Company, which celebrated record earnings earlier this year, also cracked the top 50 companies; rising four slots over 2021 to 44th with its $999m in revenue. Sime Darby Motor (55th), Ford New Zealand (56th), and Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand (58th) also made it into the top 60.

Significant sales of the ever popular Ranger saw Ford jump a mammoth 29 positions, while Mitsubishi’s strong year of Outlander, Eclipse, Triton, and ASX registrations saw it improve 45 spots. Mitsubishi was also ranked as having the fastest revenue growth of any company on the 200.

Other motoring brands to make it onto the list included Mazda New Zealand (116th, down two spots), Turners Automotive Group (137th, up 13 spots), and Kia Motors New Zealand (138th, up 41 spots).

Mercedes-Benz New Zealand (142nd, down four spots), BMW New Zealand (182nd, new entry for 2022), Honda New Zealand (188th, up nine positions), and Suzuki New Zealand (197th, new entry for 2022) also sneaked onto the list.

The top five positions overall went to Fonterra ($22,953m in revenue), EBOS Group ($11,439m), Fletcher Building ($8,498m), Woolworths NZ ($7,585m) and Fulton Hogan ($5,224m).

Toyota New Zealand had been nominated by Deloitte for Best Growth Strategy as part of its Top 200 awards ceremony. Sadly for the marque, the award instead went to Scott Technology.