Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
Our quarterly Motor Trader Franchised Dealer Barometer provides an insight into the current state of play in the car retailing sector and it doesn’t make for comfortable reading.
Turmoil in the international banking sector and a credit crunch which has turned into a credit crisis have hit dealers with a double whammy.
Dealers are used to operating in tough conditions but the current trading environment is the worst for decades as owners and managers find themselves sailing in unchartered waters.
One of the more disturbing findings from our Barometer is the high number of dealers who expect to make redundancies this year.
While the car retailing sector has a high staff turnover rate the number of layoffs in recent years has been largely limited to companies going out of business.
Redundancies on this scale present a worrying future trend and will leave some under-resourced dealers in a precarious situation – especially those not turning over a decent business in service and repair work which is helping to alleviate some of the pain caused by the slowdown of car sales.