Same-store dealer sales dip in January

For the first time in a year, boat dealers saw same-store sales decline year-over-year.

Overall same-store sales dropped 1.5 percent in January 2015 from January 2014, according to a report from CDK Global Recreation today. It was the second year in a row that the report, based on data from user’s of CDK’s Lightspeed DMS, showed a January decline.

In fact, January was the only month in 2014 when sales declined compared to 2013, and sales ended the year on a particularly high note with increases of 16.2 percent in November and 24.7 percent in December.

For January 2015, unit sales were down slightly, 1.1 percent lower than in 2014.Unit sales had increased 31.2 percent in December over 2013.

The biggest drop, though, came in the service department, where revenue decreased 13.5 percent from 2014. That followed a 20.4 percent surge for service revenue in December, and was the first monthly decline in service since August.

The lone bright spot in the report was parts sales, which increased 7 percent from a year earlier. It was the 10th straight month of part sales growth.