Holden posts $70.2 million loss
June 30, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Holden has today announced a $70.2 million loss for the 2007-08 financial year.
The big loss came after the company tallied up charges of $76.8 million that relate to the forthcoming closure of its Family II engine plant in Port Melbourne, Victora as well as a $50.3 million hit on employee’s superannuation as the financial crisis hit fund earnings.
Holden’s chairman and managing director, Mark Reuss, said in a message to staff that the result was “disappointing because the organisation was well placed to make a healthy profit in Australia before world markets fell in the third quarter of 2008″.
Holden’s loss is a further blow to the local car making industry, after Ford Australia announced a $274 million loss for the same period.
“The Holden senior leadership team is doing everything possible to return to a profitable position as quickly as possible,” said Mr Ruess.
“This includes attacking the revenue and cost sides of the business with equal enthusiasm.”
Toyota Australia was the only local maker to report a profit for last year, although its figure of $123.4 million after tax for the year to March 31 was half the profit of the previous year.
Print it: 
***********PRIMO****************
No Suprise
More job losses at Holden when the engine plant closes……..i hope the media give them as much shit as they did when Ford said their engine plant was closing…..but didnt. How many more jobs will go when the GM bankruptcy proceedings are finished? I hope they dont think that the Cruze will be their saviour! It really is a very average car as more and more people are discovering.
I wouldnt buy any GM product wjth the crap thats goin on at the moment….
That’s not to bad when you consider the current economic climate, the fact that USA exports have finished and that they are retooling for local production of the Cruze which must have cost them a packet.
ONE LAST THING……………..F A C T:
“Commodore Australia’s # 1 seller for #years straight!”
The market has spoken!
Cheers
F-0
ur absoluetly right Frugal one, if Holden were producing such low quality products as many people are saying, then the Commodore would not be number one. And i know many people will say its all fleets but that just shows that the Commodore can cater for all segments of motoring. So just suck it up and let Holden get on with the job.
Frugal,
The market and Holden’s result tells me the Commodore is not a viable car for Holden to produce. Yes it may be the No1 seller but Holden is still losing money and the VE has been around for how long?
Holden either needs to build a cheaper decent car or export the Commodore. However, the Commodore is NOT a car the world wants and the Aussie car market is too small and very responsive to change in market trends to rely on.
What, and this is a shock in the worlds economy at present ?
Get used to more saying the same.
Being profitable is one thing and losses aren’t really too far fetched as alot of car makers are bleeding cash at the moment. However what’s more of a focus is future plans of a company, with GM where it is currently things don’t look too rosy for Holden even if they were making a big profit.
The Cruze seems to be well received at the moment, whether it will keep Holden viable we will see. The Volt will be the next major release for GM/Holden and that’ll have to do well.
But as things stand it seems GM is keen to keep Holden as one of their more valued brands. I’ve said before I’m no Holden fan by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing I like about them is their muscle cars. However if they ever go out of business, it’ll be a sad day for the whole Aussie motoring world.
The whole Holden vs Ford rivalry is very much apart of the landscape here and it would be weird if one of the two or both would happen to be gone. Only time will tell.
Holden, and GM for that matter, has always been very aggressive in trying to gain market share. Low margin, high volumes… things are bound to go wrong when sales volume goes down… I’d imagine dealers becoming very very wise in getting stocks now, so the factories are not moving them as they have been designed to.
Holden could expand profitably into the production of Waaaaaahmbulances, as there seem to be a lot of people complaining unnecessarily about the financial health GM-Daewoo’s local pre-delivery and marketing subsidiary.
LOL @ Shak.
holden,toyota,ford…well EVERYONE has no stock of cars and utes.don’t expect things to get better any time soon.mr rudds investment allowance,and a bit of rain finally, has interest in car sales peaking…
For once I actually agree with FrugalOne.
2007-2008?
So their total sales revenue was down from $5.7 billion in 2007 to $5.4 billion, but export revenue rose from $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion due to engine exports and the newly-released Pontiac G8.But with the G8 officially canned and GM undergoing a rapid downsizing of its operations, I`m guessing this year’s export results may be a different story.
that what happened when you gave away so many cars to fleets just to hold the title of “australia’s best selling fleet car”.they can’t make money during boom times what hope they got now.
and they just lost 80% of export.
Yes thats what happens when you artificially prop up sales numbers by virtually giving cars away to fleets.VE is an out and out fleet vehiclle which is why they can get away with it being so much inferior to the FG or even the Aurion.
And did you know that Holden count cars delivered to the dealer as sold? where as Ford count cars that are actually sold. These 2 reasons are why Commodore is artificially Number 1 and way off being the best car. More fiddled figures from GM\Holden. Of course all you Holden bogans know that when you buy a Holden now you are actually buying it off the U.S. government? What a joke ……….
I did expect this loss to be more considering the circumstances.
I don’t want to see any manufacturer post big losses (except maybe Proton… and Ssang Yong) because the more money they bleed, the less quality and innovation we see.
Frugalone you have a good point there and I would have to agree with you on that
You are right Slick…..buy a Holden and you ARE buying a U.S. Gov owned car!! It is a joke ……
GM……..Government Motors !!!!
Doesn’t sound like a hell of a lot more for the OZ taxpayer to suck on. He’s used to it now, and if he doesn’t keep sucking, Holden is goneburger.
I thought that they were only ending production of family 4 engine, not closing the plant, i could be wrong but are they not increasing V6 production for export ?
Toyota made a profit ford & holden make a loss, no wonder toyota has 23% australian market share! good money in white goods maybe the other two should try it! hsv will be gone next,fpv to follow!
Who cares, it’s Daewoo-Holden now.
$70.2 million loss,1/6 of Toyotas F1 teams seasonal budget.
Holden are ceasing production of the Family 4 engine [which dates back to the Camira] and they are also closing down the old factory where the engines Family 4 engines are made [where they have been since the 70s-8s]
However; I expect that there won’t be as many job losses as most people are expecting.
Because over the past couple of years Holden have been gradually transferring production from the old factory to the new factory where the next generation 4 cylinder engines will be made along with the new V6s – including the Direct Injection Twin Turbo Option [DITTO] engine – similar to what was in the TT-36 Torana Concept
Andrew:
You are correct, they are only ending production of family 4 engine and maybe increasing V6 production for export.
Well i personally don’t think -70M AUD is that bad considering the climate. I was expecting double that, but at least this will silence those who have been claiming for a while now on this site, that Holden were actually going to turn a positive profit this year.
Just shut it down…….shut it…maybe they could sell the remaining cars as scrap metal.
Holden really need to up their game with the fleet spec Commodore. Whilst there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the SS/SS-V lineup (personally, I think they offer immense value for money), the Commodore Omega leaves a lot to be desired.
The fact that Holden has retained the clunky 4-speed auto that serviced multiple generations of Commodores, is simply unacceptable. The fact that they branded the VE their “billion dollar baby” happens to highlight Holden’s complacency and arrogance in deciding to keep their boat anchor auto in the “all new” VE. Holden was able to gauge just how ignorant and insular the average Commodore buyer is, and knew that even if the VE becomes inferior to its main competitors, people would still buy them.
Will potential buyers of this indigenous manifestation of Obama Motors Inc. query who will be responsible for carrying out warranty obligations in two years?
What they need to do is pull fingers out and stop buggering around with the Cruze, and get straight onto the Volt.
They need something that will put them right over the top of the competition.
The Volt shows a lot of promise. By the time they deliver it to the aussies, every other manufacturer would have already had similar 2 years ago.
They need a big statement, not just another mid pack small car claiming to be a savior.
On the Loss, I too would have expected bigger, so well done to them on that, but in thinking about it, this figure comes from trading that occured 1-2 years ago.
Nobody knew the term “financial crisis” back then, and also as already pointed out the figures will be reflective of once plentiful export sales.
They dont need a pretend “game changer”, Toyota showed that people will eventually see through that crap, they need a real one
i think your ford is crap…not the world’s most respected car maker TOYOTA.
So what’s that – six years of losses in a row?
And Krudd wants to throw MORE money at them?
REALITY BITE Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 6:58 pm
i think your ford is crap…not the world’s most respected car maker TOYOTA.
Respected by Who?Fridge Makers???