Porsche: Dealer profits, sales per store on the rise
 | Porsche’s Detlev von Platen: Higher profits better position dealers to invest in their stores and dealership operations. |
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DETROIT -- With more new products coming, sales per dealership at U.S. Porsche stores should jump 30 percent during the next three years, says Michael Bartsch, COO of Porsche Cars North America.
It's part of Porsche's plan to boost sales and profitability for its dealership base. Porsche forecasts that its U.S. sales will be 50,000 by 2018, up 43 percent from 35,043 in 2012 -- but executives say they don't need to add stores to achieve the growth.
"If we can do 10 percent a year, we're doing pretty well," Bartsch said.
Sales per dealership for Porsche's U.S. stores already are up dramatically. In 2009, Porsche's 200 dealerships were selling an average of 98 new vehicles annually, according to the Automotive News Data Center. The dealership count has since dropped to 191 stores, Bartsch said, and average new-vehicle sales per location were 183 in 2012.
"We've reduced the number of dealers, and we're slowly building the critical mass," Bartsch said.
And profitability is up accordingly.
U.S. Porsche dealerships showed an average net profit of 3.6 percent in 2012, Porsche Cars North America CEO Detlev von Platen said. That is up from 2011 and is higher than the industry average. Through the first 10 months of 2012, the most recent information available, the nation's average dealership reported 2.5 percent net profit as a percentage of sales, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.
With the profit gains, Porsche dealers are better positioned to invest in their stores and dealership operations, von Platen said.
"This is a clear statement to our partners that we do not want only to sell cars," he said. "We want to sell cars with having the possibility for our partners to invest in the future."
You can reach Amy Wilson at awilson@crain.com.
