Are tire wholesalers having a good year?

Dec. 13, 2012

Fewer wholesale tire distributors were having a good year through the first nine months of this year than they had the previous two years. A lot fewer.

When asked, "How were your tire sales in dollars for the first nine months of 2012?" 58% of the respondents to the latest Modern Tire Dealer "State of the Industry Survey" said sales were up. Here's the breakdown:

Direction    Wholesalers

Up:              58.0% (by an average of 14%).

Down:         34.0% (by an average of 15%).

Same:         8.0%.

In 2011 and 2010, the number of wholesale distributors with positive sales numbers through nine months was 73.6% and 78.6%, respectively. As you might expect given those numbers, the number of distributors that were down in sales was higher this year.

Do they expect sales to improve in the fourth quarter? Most do.

When asked, "How do you project your full-year tire sales in dollars to be?" 60.4% of the wholesalers responded positively and 35.4% responded negatively. Those numbers do not compare favorably to the previous two years, either.

To find out how wholesale distributors performed based on tire unit sales, click here.