Research by the UK-based ICDP shows that the collapse to demand in Western Europe is leading to a decline in the number of main dealer sales networks across the region. However, the decline in numbers last year was small and the ICDP also notes that there are rapidly growing numbers of sales points to the east in Russia and Turkey.
The 2012 edition of the European Car Distribution Handbook (ECDH) reveals that main dealer sales networks in Western Europe have shrunk by 3% since 2011, but the number of sales agents has increased by 2%. This is despite the collapse in many national markets, and weakness in others.
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The research also found that the size of authorised service networks has remained stable overall, with falling numbers for established markets and brands, offset by growth in eastern markets and with new brands. This is despite other ICDP research showing that overall repair and maintenance volumes are falling, and will continue to do so for the rest of this decade, as vehicles require less servicing and reliability improves.
Bright spots include Russia (sales points up 14% year-on-year) and Turkey (sales points up 10% year-on-year).
However, dealer count in the ‘eurozone bailout’ countries fell by between 4% and 9% in 12 months, thought the ICDP notes that “within this there were many ownership changes, as the original investors sold out to others looking to buy at what they hope will be the bottom of the market”.
The ICDP research also pointed to structural differences to the retail industry across Europe. It said that there are “stark differences are shown in the scale of dealers, with Germany remaining the largest market, but with sales per main dealer half that of the UK and only 70% that of France and Italy”. Concentration of fast growing sales in metro locations drives Russia and Turkey to the greatest scale with close to 500 sales per main dealer in Turkey and over 700 in Russia.
By brand over the last decade, dealers of Audi, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Hyundai have fared best with growth in sales per main dealer of 25% or more, whilst dealers for Smart, Jaguar, Chrysler, Peugeot and Citroen and Fiat have suffered most with falls of 25% or more. At both ends, changes in the product range must be a significant contributor, ICDP noted.
