The SEMA Financial Benchmarking Report is used by companies to benchmark key sales-performance indicators against industry averages. The report is available for manufacturers, WDs and retailers. The most recent editions available to the industry are the November 2009 reports. In these you will find data on sales projections, quick ratio, inventory turns, sales per employee, research and development, factory overhead, selling and administrative expense and more. Participants of the Financial Benchmarking Program receive the reports immediately. After a month or so they are made available to the industry for a fee of $99.99 for non-members, $50 for SEMA members.
In November, 44.3% of manufacturers indicated that they experienced a growth in sales compared to the same month in 2008. Nearly 35% of distributors saw growth compared to November 2008 and 33% of retailers indicated the same.
The following charts indicate the sales predictions by all three groups. Manufacturers were asked to predict sales for December 2009, and January and February of 2010. Distributors and retailers were asked to predict their sales for January, February and March 2010.
Each group was asked to indicate the segments that they sell to. For the month of November, all three groups primarily sold products related to the truck and SUV market. Table 1 includes the top-five segments for each of the three groups.
Download copies of the November Financial Benchmarking reports here.