NEWS
MOTORACTIVE WINS AGAIN
MotorActive has again taken out the SuperCheap Auto Retailers Choice Award Announced at the 2021 Supercheap (SCA) Auto Trade Partner virtual forum, this is the seventh, consecutive time MotorActive has triumphed over the many other suppliers to SCA – which as part of the Super Retail Group has firmly established itself as one of Australia’s Top 10 retailers. MotorActive notes that this is quite an achievement to be the award’s only recipient since its introduction in 2014 (SCA did not conduct awards in 2020).
This annual award is voted on by team members across the SCA store network. “We’re over the moon to win it again,” MotorActive’s Managing Director, Bruce Morrison, said. “I believe it’s a great reflection on our hardworking, long-standing sales force and the highly-engaged way they support and motivate the people at the sales coal face.” MotorActive National Sales Manager, Michael Hogan, echoed this point. “A huge congratulations to our retail team for their continued efforts, despite all the challenges we’ve faced directly from COVID,” Michael said. “The focus, dedication and representation of MotorActive and its brands has been first class, I’m very proud.” This is not the only award MotorActive picked up during the 2021 SCA Forum – it also scored the Outstanding Strategic Partner Award. “We were especially delighted to also pick up the Strategic Partner Award,” Bruce said. “This is of particular importance right at this point, as having a solid strategic view is really important to both our businesses as we come out of COVID.” MotorActive represents Meguiar’s, Mobil 1 and ColorSpec. For more information, visit www.motoractive.com.au 14
Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine October 2021
EXPLORING INDUSTRY TRENDS ACA Research takes a look at the latest trends in the Australian automotive space The past five years have seen significant change in the Australian automotive industry. From a new vehicle perspective, we have seen brands entering the market, and some muchloved brands exiting. Technologies have changed, with features such as ADAS becoming common-place, and vehicle servicing has continued its progression to a technology-led process. While these trends are exciting and play an important role in shaping the future of the industry, focusing too much on them can sometimes result in losing track of the fundamentals of automotive servicing. Going back to basics, the last five years saw the Australian car parc increase from 16.8m to 18.1m vehicles, as an additional 1.3 million passenger and light commercial vehicles came on road. This increase in the market led to significant growth in the annual servicing task, increasing the demand for both workshops and technicians. Pleasingly, the aftermarket has clearly risen to this challenge, with 1,700 additional workshops operating now compared to five years ago.
From an aftermarket perspective, this also means the average vehicle is getting older, which should shift more of the servicing task away from dealerships and into independent or chain workshops.
Figure Two. Source: ABS Census of Motor Vehicles
In addition to this, by mapping supply and demand against each other, we can project that servicing these additional 1.6m vehicles in 2025 will require an additional 2,300 workshops on top of those currently operating, staffed by 5,300 technicians and support staff. While we know that many chain workshop operators are targeting growth, achieving this outcome will require a concerted effort across the industry.
Figure One. Source: ABS Counts of Australian Businesses
With 24,600 aftermarket workshops now operating around the country, this provides jobs for almost 66,000 technicians and administrative staff. Despite this, we know that resourcing remains a challenge, with many of them actively recruiting for trained technicians. Furthermore, automotive apprenticeship completions are unsteady, which suggests this will continue to remain an issue for the foreseeable future. Our data supports this, suggesting that this trend is only going to accelerate, with the AAAA Critical Industry Issues Report forecasting growth of almost 10 percent in the Australian passenger and light commercial vehicle car parc over the next five years. Even though new vehicle sales have been inconsistent off the back of COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing global new vehicle supply shortages, reduced vehicle scrappage means annual growth rates have held largely constant as consumers and businesses put off replacing existing vehicles.
Figure Three. Source: ABS Census of Motor Vehicles, ABS Counts of Australian Businesses, ABS Census of Population and Housing.
This projected demand is concerning given workshops already cite the shortage of trained technicians as one of the most significant challenges they face. Ultimately, while international borders will reopen and workshops will again be able to source skilled technicians from overseas, migration caps mean this strategy cannot fully solve the problem. This highlights the importance of the work being undertaken by independent and chain workshops, training organisations, and industry bodies such as the AAAA to increase the appeal and consideration of a career as an automotive technician, building the workforce of tomorrow, today. This column was prepared for AAA Magazine by ACA Research, our partners in the AAAA Aftermarket Dashboard which is delivered to AAAA members each quarter. For more information, visit www.acaresearch.com.au or contact Ben Selwyn on bselwyn@acaresearch.com.au
