A survey by AutomotiveResearch.com has found that automotive repair shops in the United States are turning more to private label brands.
During the first eight months of the year, the percent of shops reporting they have increased their purchasing of private label brands increased to 77.4% from 75.4% in 2021, according to the report. AutomativeResearch.com also found that part purchases at independent repair shops remained steady at an average of 36.2%.
This trend seems to be set to continue into 2023. Over the next year, 76% of independent repair shops expect to increase their private label parts purchases, up from 73.6% previously. Shops cited the inflationary pressure affecting their customers as the main reason for anticipating an increase in private-label purchases.
In the previous two years, the pandemic was seen as driving customer uncertainty and behavior. However, this year, it is not the pandemic, but cost. The group noted that most of the shops stated their customers were having financial difficulty due to inflation were the same shops that reported their customers were proactively asking for lower-cost parts.
But there are additional private label auto products which are showing strong growth. According to IRI, private label automotive products in general have risen 13% in the past 52 weeks and reached sales of $800 million. In individual products, Fluids/Antifreeze have growth 14.2% in the past 52 weeks and in the past month alone had dollar sales growth of 16.4%. Motor oil as well has experience growth, rising 13% during the past 52 weeks.