PMPA Business Trends July 2023
The PMPA Business Trends Sales Index declined 27 points or 18 percent to 127 in July 2023. On first look, this appears to be a stunning reversal of fortunes for our shops in July. However, a critical reading of the figures and placing them in context allows us to see this as a somewhat larger than typical June to July “respite” in our operations, and typical for the season. We still appear to be solidly on track for calendar year sales to come in between the calendar year 2021 and 2022 performance.
This outsize move, out of context, appears to be substantial, however, our YTD average is within 2 percent of our forecasted calendar year average, despite the outsized decline in July. We remain positive and optimistic. PMPA’s sentiment indicators are positive for Sales, level for Profitability, and declining for Employment and Lead Times.
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