Dealership numbers stable, but sales per store expected to slip

The “prophets of doom and gloom” for the retail auto industry were again proven wrong with the latest Franchise Activity Report from Urban Science. Dealership rooftop numbers are stable, all though sales per store are forecast to slip.

The dealership network has been fairly stable since 2010, with 98 percent of local markets showing virtually no net change. As of July 1, there were 18,252 dealerships, an 0.2 percent increase from Jan. 1.

“With the current range of 2018 sales forecasts being slightly less than 2017, throughput [sales per store] is forecast to fall around 11 units to 937 units,” said Mitch Phillips, Urban Science’s global director of data.