By Dita De Boni
Auctioneer and fresh produce distributor Turners & Growers yesterday notched up its best profit in 102 years of business.
In results to June released yesterday, the company posted a tax-paid profit of $7.23 million -- almost three times last year's $2.5 million and higher than any profit going
back to the company's genesis in 1897.
Turners is divided into two main divisions - Fresh covering the auction and distribution of fruit, produce and flowers and Auctions, the largest player in the second-hand car market in the country.
This year the car auction business traded 52,000 cars and earned the company $4.5 million, up from $2.7 million in 1998.
Fresh contributed the bulk of earnings at $5.7 million, a major improvement on last year's $359,000 and presumably the fruit of $1.5 milllion in restructuring costs applied to the division last year.
Chairman Tony Gibbs, representing Guinness Peat Group's 44 per cent holding, said: "[GPG has] been involved in restructuring the company for five years now. What we have done, by taking the hard decisions and refocusing the business, is make T&G a national company with a national transporting system and a national network to sell on."
He said what remained to be done was to return the Fresh division to generating better profits despite a market yielding limited returns on stagnant prices. He said although GPG would eventually sell out of T&G, it had "no plans to hang out the 'for sale' sign yet."
