Independent garages are gaining a greater share of the service and repair market as franchised dealers hit their lowest retention figures since 1998.
The latest Castrol Professional Car Servicing and Repair Trend Tracker points to results collected from January to August this year, which show that independents and fast fit workshops captured 47.9 percent of all servicing work, up from 44.7 percent in 2011. The rise is even more apparent when we consider that just a decade ago that figure stood at just 31.8 percent.
Franchised dealers carried out just 24.6 percent of servicing work during the same period, showing a 0.8 percent decline on 2011’s figures. Those results suggest that retention in the dealer sector is at its lowest level since 1998.
“Franchised dealers are struggling to compete with a resurgent independent sector,” said Trend Tracker analyst Chris Oakham “While British consumers are currently bucking the European trend for rapidly-declining new car sales, franchised dealers are still suffering from a deficit in sales throughout the recession. Independents, meanwhile, are proving to be particularly successful at capturing market share in an aging car parc.”
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