Automotive Specialty-Equipment Sales Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels

The specialty-equipment industry continues to experience strong growth and demand as the U.S. puts COVID-19 in the rearview mirror.

According to SEMA’s new “State of the Industry—Spring 2022” report, 75% of manufacturers, 68% of distributors and 53% of retailers/installers report sales are currently above where they were prior to the pandemic, and consumer demand is equally higher for most companies than in 2019.

However, despite strong industry growth, concerns remain due to ongoing supply-chain issues, inflation, economic uncertainty and the war in Ukraine.

The report, which includes 70 pages of new industry data, helps companies make better business decisions by highlighting current industry trends, business metrics and estimates on how sales have changed over the last year, and provides a look into the ongoing supply disruption and a pulse check of consumers as they navigate economic uncertainty and higher prices.

Additional key findings from the report include:

• More than half of companies expect sales to continue to grow in the coming year.
• Supply-chain issues remain a challenge for more than 90% of the industry, and most don’t see things returning to normal until at least 2023.
• The current inflation rate of 8.5% is the highest it has been in 40 years, yet consumers continue to spend.
• Despite gas prices being up more than 40% on average from where they were last year, 80% of Americans still plan on taking a road trip this summer.
• Amid record consumer demand, 70% of manufacturers, 56% of distributors and 45% of retail installers have had difficulty filling open positions due to a shortage of qualified applicants to hire.

The complete SEMA “State of the Industry—Spring 2022” report is available to download for free at www.sema.org/research.

Source: SEMA