Proudly serving the industry for which it was named for more than 50 years, Outdoor Power Equipment provides dealers who sell and service outdoor power equipment with valuable information to succeed in a competitive market.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/78196
COVER STORY By Steve Noe OPE's 2012 Dealer Survey D uring my nearly 15 years as editor of Outdoor Power Equipment magazine, one thing I've learned about this great industry is that it's starved for data. Hardly a week goes by when I don't receive a phone call or an e-mail from someone seeking data on the latest trends in the industry. As a result, I've made it my mission to provide you with as much data as possible. To that end, we at OPE decided to fol- low up our nationwide dealer surveys from 2001, 2006 and 2010 by recently conducting a similar survey. The only differ- ence between this year's survey and the 20-question survey in 2010 is that with the emergence of social media, we decided to add a 21st question about its use for business purposes. After sending out this survey to more than 1,200 dealers on June 28 and July 12, I'm pleased to report that we received an 8.5-percent response rate by the July 20 deadline. Since we realized that the answers to a few of our questions would vary from region to region — especially when it comes to technicians' salaries and shop labor rates — we decided to further validate the results to those questions by breaking down the multiple-choice answers into the following five regions: • Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont • South: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia • Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin • Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming • Southwest: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah Following are the findings of our survey: Age of dealership owner? 2001/2006/2010/2012 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60 + 1.96%/2.77%/3.4%/1.0% 14.29%/7.76%/4.1%/2.9% 33.05%/27.15%/16.4%/20.4% 31.93%/36.01%/43.2%/38.8% Number of service techs? 0 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-15 16 + 18.77%/26.32%/32.9%/36.9% 2001/2006/2010/2012 1.12%/2.22%/3.4%/0% 49.30%/48.20%/44.1%/48.5% 33.61%/32.41%/33.1%/35.9% 8.96%/8.03%/9%/10.7% 3.64%/2.77%/2.8%/1.0% 1.12%/2.49%/2.1%/0% 1.12%/0.28%/0.7%/1.0% 0.28%/1.11%/1.4%/1.0% 0.84%/2.49%/3.4%/1.9% Satisfaction with profit margins? 2001/2006/2010/2012 Very Good Good Fair Poor Very Poor 2.52%/2.22%/5.6%/1.9% 21.29%/23.82%/29.4%/16.5% 45.66%/48.20%/51%/50.5% 23.81%/21.05%/11.9%/25.2% 6.72%/4.71%/2.1%/5.8% Annual income from service (as percentage of total dealer- ship income)? 2001/2006/2010/2012 Less than 20% 22.66%/20.22%/25.4%/26.5% 21-40% 41-60% 61-80% 81% + Hourly pay rate for starting service technicians Hourly Rate $5 - $6.99 $7.25 - $8.99 $9 - $10.99 $11 - $12.99 $13 - $14.99 $15 - $16.99 $17 - $18.99 $19 - $20.99 $21 - $22.99 $23 - $24.99 $25 or more * = $7 - $8.99 NA = Not Applicable 10 Northeast South Midwest Northwest Southwest 2012 NA 0% 2012 NA 32.1% 28.6% 25.0% 10.7% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3.6% ** = $21 or more OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT www.outdoorpowerequipment.com 15.6% 40.6% 25.0% 12.5% 0% 3.1% 0% 3.1% 0% 0% 2012 NA 9.1% 36.4% 27.3% 15.2% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 0% 0% 2012 NA 0% 50.0% 33.3% 0% 0% 16.7% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2012 NA 33.3% 0% 33.3% 33.3% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% United States 2001/2006/2010/2012 10.36%/3.55%/NA/NA 33.89%*/21.30%*/13.7%/8.8% 27.73%/32.54%/29.5%/36.3% 16.53%/19.23%/30.2%/27.5% 5.04%/8.58%/12.2%/16.7% 3.64%/8.28%/10.8%/3.9% 1.12%/0.89%/1.4%/2.9% 0.84%/1.78%/1.4%/1.0% 0.84%**/0.30%/0%/2.0% NA/0.30%/0%/0% NA/3.25%/0.7%/1.0% 38.53%/36.01%/34.5%/35.3% 19.55%/24.65%/20.4%/24.5% 13.88%/11.63%/11.3%/8.8% 5.38%/7.48%/8.5%/4.9% Total number of employees? 2001/2006/2010/2012 0 1-5 6-10 11-15 16 + 2.24%/5.82%/4.1%/3.9% 50.42%/54.85%/49%/48% 26.05%/18.01%/17.9%/28.4% 9.52%/7.76%/13.8%/8.8% 11.76%/13.57%/15.2%/10.8% Annual gross income of dealership? 2001/2006/2010/2012 Less than $100K $101K-$250K $251K-$500K $501K-$750K $751K-$999K $1M-$1,999,999 $2M-$2,999,999 $3M-$3,999,999 $4M and above 16.25%/19.67%/12.2%/11.2% 15.13%/15.51%/10.8%/7.1% 14.85%/14.13%/15.8%/17.3% 10.64%/8.31%/8.6%/7.1% 9.24%/6.65%/10.1%/13.3% 17.09%/14.96%/14.4%/19.4% 4.48%/6.93%/8.6%/9.2% NA/NA/NA/9.2% NA/NA/NA/6.1% Brands that dealer services? 2001/2006/2010/2012 Only brands sold Brands sold & selected others All brands 11.48%/12.47%/9.7%/13.6% 40.62%/40.44%/54.2%/53.4% 47.90%/47.09%/36.1%/33.0% Annual income from sale of wholegoods (as percentage of total dealership income)? 2001/2006/2010/2012 Less than 20% 25.21%/23.55%/26.6%/18.8% 21-40% 41-60% 61-80% 81% + 31.37%/31.86%/33.1%/26.7% 26.61%/26.87%/25.9%/28.7% 14.01%/15.24%/12.2%/23.8% 2.80%/2.49%/2.2%/2.0%