Current situation of the Aftermarket of bodywork
We update content in the category of our blog "The professionals say" With the collaboration of José Luis Guerrero, who thanks to his experience helps us to know the current situation of the Aftermarket in bodywork, a topic much debated lately.
José Luis, has a long experience in After sales from Spain and Portugal having worked with big brands like Du Pont or PPG. Among his responsibilities, Product Manager, Head of Training or Commercial Management have stood out, so he can give us a lot of knowledge about the current Post-sale.
The current volume of the After Sales
In principle and to size the volume of the After sales in terms of figures, we must know that the Spanish Car Park it is about 21,000,000 million vehicles (Passenger Cars, 4 × 4 and light commercials).
This is just a number, which does not have to be good or bad. What is really important are other factors and nuances that give us an idea of the behavior of that car park in terms of After sales it means. The main factors to consider are:
- Age of the car park
- Kilometers traveled annually by each vehicle
- Typology of insurance policies
Let's see, then, how each of these factors affects the After sales in Spain.
Age of the car park
The age of Spanish car park, it is currently very close to 11 years on average nationwide. It is true that cities like Madrid or Barcelona they have a slightly younger average (9.1 years in the case of Madrid and 9.9 years in Barcelona).
This is a fairly old park that in no way favors the billing of the workshops since it is very notorious that an old vehicle has fewer steps through the workshops than vehicles between 5-9 years old, the most profitable in terms of tickets to the workshop. Unfortunately, in the coming years, the park will continue to age, approaching 12 years old in the years to come.
Annual kilometers traveled by each vehicle
Taking into account the maximum that "the greater the number of kilometers traveled, the greater the probability of an accident", the average number of kilometers traveled in Spain by a vehicle is 12,200. It is also this aspect, they are the vehicles of Madrid, those that are at the top of mileage, with a total of 13,600 a year and in the opposite pole, is Barcelona with 10,600 (very to take into account the effect of the motorcycle in Barcelona ).
Typology of insurance policies
This is perhaps the aspect that most influences vehicle entrances to workshops, at least in terms of Body aftermarket it means. We must bear in mind that Spain, historically, has been a "Third Party" insurance country. In recent years, this data has been further reinforced, due to the aging of the park.
Currently, around 66% of insurance policies (2/3 of the park), they are “Third Party” policies in any of their modalities. Only 1/3 of the park, is insured "At all risks" and it must be taken into account that more or less half of this number of vehicles have an "All risk with franchise" policy.
Conclusions
All this gives us an unencouraging panorama for the body shops. That is why the body shop cannot continue operating as it did in the past and now it is time to look for new modalities and forms of business.
I remember in my youth that my father used to open the workshop on Monday mornings and there were a significant number of clients waiting to be attended. Well, those times are over. It is time for the Workshop Managers to apply commercial and marketing methods to convince the suppliers of work, which is their workshop, the best option for their car fleets.
A couple more facts for lovers of numbers:
- The 82% of the body repairs, are currently paid by Insurance Companies, so it becomes vital, a good collaboration with them.
- The After Sales market in Spain weighs approximately 9,200 million euros, of which the 21%, about 1,900 million euros, correspond to the weight of the body.
With this scenario, I encourage you to prepare for the Post-sale of the coming years, which will not be better or worse but, DIFFERENT.
From Daevi we are very grateful for the contribution of José Luis, a true expert in Automotive After Sales who, thanks to his experience, makes us know the situation of the Aftermarket in bodywork.
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