By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
A Bahamian auto dealer said yesterday that a 12 per cent year-over-year increase in sales of his high-end vehicles was likely being driven by a pre-Value-Added Tax (VAT) rush, adding that he was “a little concerned” that trend would be shortlived.
Ben Albury, Bahamas Bus & Truck’s general manager, told Tribune Business: “Vehicle sales have been pretty good. I have seen a slight increase now. I see that my high-end sales are up by about 12 per cent but, overall, my lower-end vehicles sales are slightly down.
“Hopefully the fact that I have increased sales on the high-end will offset the decline in the lower-end vehicles. I think that people are preparing for VAT and are trying to buy their vehicles prior to VAT implementation.”
Mr Albury admitted that this trend was disconcerting. “I’m a little concerned. It’s good to see that, but you know it’s going to be shortlived and then you wonder what is going to be the affect afterwards,” he added.
“I’m only going based on comments that I have heard people making, customers coming in, saying that they are trying to get their vehicle before VAT comes on stream.”
Mr Albury said vehicle sales overall for the past two years have been “sporadic”.
“The numbers themselves are really hard to say because sales in general over the last two years have been very sporadic,” he added.
“I can have fantastic months which could, in better years, have been my worst month ever. It’s really hard to try and keep decent inventory levels and have availability of product, so that when we do have the small surges I have the product to supply people.
“I can go one day when literally you’re banging your head against the wall, and the next day I’m selling five cars. A lot of business people I speak to, not only in the auto industry but other retailers, have told me the same thing. To really say we are doing better or worse it’s hard to say, because I don’t know what the week is going to bring. There is no rhyme or reason to say these months are busy or these months are typically slow.”
Comments
John 10 years, 2 months ago
There can be more reasons than VAT for the increase in high end car sales. First off if the recession has been going on since 2008, persons who normally change their vehicles every five years are overdue to purchase new vehicles, so I they do not see the economy getting any better it my drive them to make the purchase now. Second reason may be the fact that banks have dropped their interest rates so low on deposits (including CD's) that it may be advantageous to spend some of this money rather than have it sit in the bank at ridiculously low rates. Third reason is that persons who have investments overseas (USA especially) may have seen recoveries in that economy to a point where they feel comfortable making big ticket purchases. Not only is the US stock and bond market at the highest points since 2008, but they end to be sustaining these high points. Even most stocks on the local market ha regained their pre 2008 levels and are paying regular dividends. Maybe the web shops are pulling too much money out of the local economies d so he recovery appears slower than it actually is. This can spell danger in the long term if the economy hits another downturn before it fully recovers.
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