Gradual growth in retail sales

“Retail sales continued to show a gradual recovery in June, which was in line with industry forecasts, despite the growing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our daily lives as the country moved from lockdown level 2 to level 3, and then, at the end of June, we experienced a really bad week with rapidly rising infection levels and the imposition of lockdown level 4. “The aggregate sales of 38 030 units were an increase of 6 387 units or 20,2% on the performance in June 2020, while total vehicle sales for the first half of 2021 were 40,1% higher than at the same time in 2020. This is genuinely great news. We are halfway through the year and we are tracking ahead of most industry forecasts, which is encouraging. “It is also encouraging to see the rental industry increasing its purchases as they accounted for 7,6% of total sales. This not only shows growing business confidence within this key economic indicator, but also means that more vehicles will come into the used car market when the time comes to re-fleet,” added Dommisse. Dommisse noted that another positive sign was the 50,9% growth in the export of built-up vehicles, as this is the key to success through economy of scale production for most of the local vehicle manufacturers. “However, we as the motor dealers of South Africa are also realists and know well that it is going to be tough to keep up momentum in July as key living costs, such as electricity and water, are going up, together with the price of fuel and, in many instances, municipal rates and taxes. During this time, dealers will also be dealing with the implementation of the Protection of Personal Information Act, the planned roll-out of Aarto and the Competition Guidelines for the local motor industry. “What we really need as a stimulus is a rapid increase in the rate of vaccinations. The injection of R10-billion into Aspen to facilitate vaccine production is good news in the fight against the coronavirus,” concluded the Nada chairperson. Source: Nada