The Italian dealerships have reached the current market crisis (with monthly drops well beyond two figures) weighed down in the fundamental indicators, due to them and perhaps above all by the car manufacturers, which in fact govern organizational choices and force management ones. This is what emerges from the analysis of the ItaliaBilanci Automotive Dealer Report. In 2020, one in four dealerships closed at a loss, where previously one in seven did, but apart from this we must acknowledge that they reacted well. The 2020 indices show minimum deviations from 2019, in the order of hundredths, apart from the operating income on capital, which went from 9.2 to 8%, and the net income on equity, from 8.6 to 6.5%. Evidently the Covid closure has made itself felt on the turnover, to the point that many have not even reopened. At the end of 2020 there were 1,248 active dealers compared to 1,329 in 2019, equal to -6%, while in the 3 previous years the average annual decrease had been 3%. In practice, the average indices were kept up by the exit of those who would have ditched them.
But if in 2020 the houses eased the pressure on the network, they had not done so between 2017 and 2019, where there is a gradual burden. While revenues grew by 14%, management expenses increased by 16.5 and personnel expenses by more than 20%. Thus the added value and the revenues per employee decreased by 3.4 and 3.8% respectively. In terms of assets, capital increased by 15% and equity by 22, while recourse to third parties by + 7%. These were the years in which the average value of cars increased by 5% in 24 months, thanks to SUVs, in the face of volumes contracting by 3%, despite the injections of km0 every month, which depreciated the used cars of dealers. According to the calculations of the Fleet & Mobility Study Center, the used stock rotated more slowly with the average days of storage increased from 68 to 71. Even with an average inventory dropped from 89 to 76 units, the weight on revenues rose from 18.6 to 19.5%, worsening the leverage financial.
Evidently the manufacturers, having touched the magic ceiling of 2 million registrations in 2017, which instead was only the epilogue of the rebound after the 2012/14 crisis, have resumed pushing for investments in structures, even though they are aware that relations are migrating to digital. , and to hire staff, knowing full well that 2 million sales would never return. But nothing, the market had to absorb all the machines that needed to be produced to keep unit costs to a minimum. A similar policy towards suppliers was among the causes of the microchip crisis.
Be that as it may, these numbers tell of the world that no longer exists: looking at them can do more harm than good. Better think about the next.