AMERCO 2009 Annual Report
July 14, 2009 Download
June 17, 2009
Fellow Shareholders,
Fiscal 2009 was a year greatly influenced by the down economy and nay saying by the prognosticators. U-Haul products are a value proposition and that worked in our favor. Overall, every time we found a toe hold over the last year, we lost somewhere else. The results you see are the product of much work by a dedicated team spread across North America. Our revenue and earnings results were disappointing and we need to improve. This is our goal.
We continue to build toward the future. Our rental fleet is in great shape; in fiscal 2009 we rotated another 22,000 new trucks into our fleet. This gives us the option to reduce our equipment capital expenditures in fiscal 2010. Our portfolio of company-owned self-storage locations expanded by over 7,000 rooms and nearly 600,000 square feet of rentable space.
Adequate cash and liquidity during these times cannot be emphasized enough. We have managed our finances so that we are able to address growth initiatives and still maintain cash reserves. At March 31, 2009 we finished the year with over $255 million of cash and availability at our Moving and Storage segment.
We are entering fiscal 2010 with emphasis on our long-term primary service objective that compels us to provide a better and better product and service to more and more people at a lower and lower cost. Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
E.J. “Joe” Shoen