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Czech Republic Auto
The following article is from a past issue of the CENTRAL EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE REPORT™. If you would like to receive our most current information and all the articles included in our information packed monthly and weekly reports, subscribe today.
Article title: New Car Distribution in the Czech Republic
Central Europe Automotive Report, Volume III, Issue 1, January 1997
by Elaine Hardy, Project Director, Harbour Wade Brown
Over 1,000 New Car Dealers
The Czech Republic boasts 1,035 new car dealers, representing 34 makes. This is divided into 923 main dealers and 112 secondary dealers, with the typical dealer network consisting of 50 dealers. Market leader Skoda however, has a large network of 233 dealers (all are main dealers), representing 23% of the total number of dealers in the market.
The average dealer sold 173 new cars in 1996. Opel has the highest sales per dealer (460) followed by Skoda (376) and Fiat (294). Ford and VW also achieved averages of over 200, but in many franchises dealers are selling less than 2 cars per week.
Dealers Selling US-owned Makes Most Efficient, Japanese Least
The American-owned makes (Ford, Opel, Chrysler) have a total of 95 franchise points but of all the franchise types, they are the most efficient with an average of 241 sales per dealer.
On the other hand, the Japanese makes (Daihatsu, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota) have a total of 147 franchise points, but are the least efficient with an average of only 81 sales per dealer.
The West European-owned makes (including Skoda as part of the Volkswagen Group) represent the lion's share of dealerships: they have 664 main and sub dealers, with average sales of 195 which is slightly less than their Central European average of 209 sales per dealer.
Korean Network Expanding Rapidly
Throughout Central Europe, the Koreans have expanded rapidly and have established a total of 686 franchise points in these 5 countries, with a sales ratio of more than 2:1 over the Japanese. In the Czech Republic, however, they only reached 73% of Japanese sales through their 93 dealer outlets last year. But they did prove to be more efficient with 94 sales per dealer.
Car Manufacturers Investing in Czech Republic
The steady transformation into a stable European economy has encouraged car manufacturers to invest in the Czech Republic: 6 manufacturers have reported 91 open points (identified, potential
dealerships) for 1998. The Czech Republic has the highest number of manufacturer-owned National Sales Companies in Central Europe (14), controlling 80% of the market. Nineteen National Sales companies are independent, but they only control a minority of sales (19%).
The dealer network density in the Czech Republic is 13 dealers per 1,000 square kilometers and 10 dealers per 100,000 people. This is also above the Central European average and approaching levels of some West European markets.