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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. The investors are awaiting

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Speaker 1: the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment data out next hour

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Speaker 1: that could shut some weight on how evolving trade policies

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Speaker 1: are impacting inflation and household confidence. Matt Miller sat down

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Speaker 1: with Tom Wagner, the Nighthead Capitol co founder, in Lela, France,

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Speaker 1: and asked him what the FED could be doing to

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Speaker 1: stem inflationary pressures.

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Speaker 2: I do think the FED needs to cut. Yes, I

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Speaker 2: don't think that. I think we're below target inflation, and

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Speaker 2: I think that you can make an argument that some

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Speaker 2: of the excess spread and rates that we have, you know,

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Speaker 2: put inflationary pressures on key consumer products like housing and auto.

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Speaker 2: Those are industries that are not doing particularly well at

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Speaker 2: the moment, and I think they would benefit from a

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Speaker 2: cut and are critically important industries, not just to the

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Speaker 2: US economy, to the US consumers.

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Speaker 3: Let's go now to Laman for more because Matt Miller

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Speaker 3: standing by with the CEO of Hurts. Yeah, thanks very much.

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Speaker 4: I do have Gil West here, the CEO of Hurts,

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Speaker 4: and Gil great to get some time with you. I

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Speaker 4: do want to talk about the business, but first I

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Speaker 4: have to ask about your finish last night, Cadillac one

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Speaker 4: two Hurts team Yoda locked out the front row for Lamar.

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Speaker 3: I mean, how did you do it?

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Speaker 5: It's historic stuff, you know. I'm a big gearhead myself

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Speaker 5: race vintage and couldn't be happier, couldn't be prouder of

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Speaker 5: the team and the partnerships we have. So it's historic

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Speaker 5: stuff at the most historic racetrack in the world.

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Speaker 4: I always ask CEOs, you know, what's the return on

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Speaker 4: investment when it comes to motorsport?

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Speaker 3: Because it's fun, So I get why you want to

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Speaker 3: do it.

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Speaker 4: A lot of people see it maybe as a vanity project,

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Speaker 4: but does it really feed down to the bottom line.

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Speaker 4: Does your big Hurts logo on that winning Cadillac make

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Speaker 4: a difference at the end of the day.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's racing motorsports, you know, it's part of our heritage.

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Speaker 5: Hurts has been involved in motorsports longer than I've been alive.

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Speaker 5: You know, me as a customer before I joined Hurts.

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Speaker 5: You know sixty five Shelby Hurts GT. You know that.

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Speaker 5: You know that drew me to Hurt. So you know,

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Speaker 5: we're in the car business and motorsports are central to.

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Speaker 4: That in terms of your business, we've had some real

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Speaker 4: worries about travel slow down in demand, maybe softer numbers

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Speaker 4: than you would have wanted in the first quarter.

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Speaker 3: Do you see that picking up now in the second quarter.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think at an aggregate level, you know, we

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Speaker 5: still see your over your growth, you know, as far

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Speaker 5: out as we can see. I think the challenge has

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Speaker 5: been the mix has shifted. So you know, government travels

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Speaker 5: down a bit, but leisure travel, which is our kind

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Speaker 5: of highest margin travel, is up. So while the mix

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Speaker 5: may shift the US inbound government down, there's other other

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Speaker 5: increases in travel as well.

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Speaker 4: Herts famously built up its fleet of Tesla's before you

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Speaker 4: came on as CEO, and I know you've been working

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Speaker 4: to get them down from I think about one hundred thousand.

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Speaker 4: How have you worked through that inventory and is that

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Speaker 4: part behind you now?

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Speaker 5: Yeah? Well, I think the whole industry probably went too

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Speaker 5: far too fast with evs. For us, we've rationalized our

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Speaker 5: ev fleet and we've reduced it, but more importantly, we've

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Speaker 5: rationalized it around where the natural product market fit for

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Speaker 5: evs are. So we've got a great partnership with Uber

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Speaker 5: and Lyfts, so on the right Hill business that we support.

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Speaker 5: There is a lot of demand for ev so we've

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Speaker 5: rationalized most of the evs that we have around that.

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Speaker 5: We also have them allf airport rentals, which is another

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Speaker 5: good product market fit much fewer at the airport.

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Speaker 4: You also are one of the biggest sellers of cars,

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Speaker 4: and a lot of people don't know that. They think

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Speaker 4: obviously of you as a rental car business. But if

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Speaker 4: we see car prices go up, does that help your

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Speaker 4: business because you can sell cars at a higher price,

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Speaker 4: or does it hurt your business because you need to

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Speaker 4: replace them at a higher price.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we look at the buy in the sell,

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Speaker 5: so the difference is what's key for us. Is an example,

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Speaker 5: one of our strategies around our fleet is to sell

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Speaker 5: more vehicles through retail, which then if you look at

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Speaker 5: what we buy vehicles for ultimately what we sell them for,

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Speaker 5: you know, it narrows the gap between the two and

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Speaker 5: improves our depreciation. So it's a conscious part of our strategy.

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Speaker 5: You're right, not a lot of people know that we

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Speaker 5: sell cars, but we're one of the largest used car

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Speaker 5: dealer ships in the world, so we've grown our capacity

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Speaker 5: to sell through retail channels. We do that our seals,

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Speaker 5: we digitize the experience, we offer financing, insurance, everything, and

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Speaker 5: then we got great partnerships in that space as well.

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Speaker 5: But as residual values increase, it certainly helps us in

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Speaker 5: the short run.

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Speaker 4: In terms of you mentioned the airport locations obviously, and

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Speaker 4: then off airport is helpful. You're getting a lot more

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Speaker 4: competition right now. What does that do to pricing if

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Speaker 4: you have say sixth coming into fifty airports across America?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I mean competition will always face competition. You know,

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Speaker 5: we're positioned well. We've got an iconic brand, been here

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Speaker 5: for over one hundred years for us. We've really focused

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Speaker 5: and leaned into what we call back to basics. But

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Speaker 5: it's running just a great operational excellence along with enhancing

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Speaker 5: our customer experience. So we're differentiated and people want to

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Speaker 5: rent from Hurts. And then from a competitive standpoint, we

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Speaker 5: positioned ourselves well.

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Speaker 4: In terms of investors, we just heard from Tom Wagner,

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Speaker 4: you know he at Nighthead.

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Speaker 3: They have well over fifty percent stake I think in

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Speaker 3: the company.

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Speaker 4: And recently we've seen Bill Ackman get involved as well.

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Speaker 3: Does Bill want to call you up? Does he get

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Speaker 3: you on the phone, Does he give you advice?

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Speaker 5: Yeah? Well, first of all, I mean we're really happy

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Speaker 5: with his confidence in Hurts and his investment, so we

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Speaker 5: welcome an investment, certainly welcome all ideas has included from

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Speaker 5: all quarters, you know, as we're looking to transform the business.

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Speaker 5: So he's got some great insights, he and his team,

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Speaker 5: so we appreciate all the input we can get.

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Speaker 3: How do you transform the business?

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Speaker 4: I think of a future where we all get into

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Speaker 4: a car that drives itself.

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Speaker 3: Is that a benefit to you or is that? Is

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Speaker 3: that a problem for It's in the future.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, we're of course we're a huge fleet manager, right,

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Speaker 5: I mean we've got you know, well over half a

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Speaker 5: million vehicles. So if you think about large fleets, asset

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Speaker 5: heavy footprint to operate them globally, you know, carrying feeding,

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Speaker 5: maintenance of all those vehicles. We're one of a few

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Speaker 5: in the world that can do this at scale. So

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Speaker 5: we're a natural player in the av space.

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Speaker 3: And so how soon do you expect that to happen?

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Speaker 4: When am I going to go to you know, my

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Speaker 4: Hurts location at John Glenn International Airport in Columbus, Ohio

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Speaker 4: and get myself a car that can drive me home

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Speaker 4: to Granville.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's coming quicker than what we have

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Speaker 5: all thought. You know, it's been leading up to the moment,

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Speaker 5: but I think right now most major cities in the

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Speaker 5: US you're starting to see not just testing but commercial deployment.

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Speaker 5: So our aim is to be, you know, one of

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Speaker 5: the key players in that mark good space.

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Speaker 4: All right, Well, you're certainly one of the key players

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Speaker 4: here at the twenty four hours of Little mom It

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Speaker 4: was amazing to see.

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Speaker 3: You guys qualify in first and second lock out. The

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Speaker 3: front row