[Atlas] Spain : The aftermarket recovers to pre-Covid levels

For the first nine months of the year, Ancera reported 13% growth in the sales of individual vehicle parts compared to the same period of 2020, and even three points better than 2019, the pre-pandemic year. The heavy-duty vehicle part sector meanwhile reports a 4% improvement on 2019. This has led to Ancera’s conservative forecast for the whole of 2021, while it also noted with satisfaction that the sector’s resilience has helped it return to pre-Covid levels, whereas at the beginning of the year analysts had not expected to see a return to normal before 2022. This resilience is also the consequence of a dynamic repair market.

Observing the first eight months of the year, a survey by Infocap (a partner of the magazine Nuestros Talleres) expects to see maintenance and repair business (across both vehicle brands’ owned networks and independent repair shops) grow by approximately 15%. Meanwhile, the analysts Solera forecast that Spanish garages will finish the year with sales of €12.7 billion (+14.7%) corresponding to a volume of repairs up by 11.4% on 2020. This value/volume discrepancy can be explained by inflation beginning to surface. Consequently, average maintenance and repair bills should end the year up by 2% (versus 2020) according to Fagenauto (the Federation of vehicle brand networks). This price hike remains moderate compared with general consumer price inflation which amounts to 3% over nine months. It remains to be seen whether supply chain hitches and parts price inflation, expected to balloon in 2022, will allow this positive trend to continue.

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