© 2008 Door & Access Systems
Publish Date: Spring 2008
Author: Tom Wadsworth
Page 58

D&AS SURVEY SAYS …
2007 Commercial Sales Up, Residential Sales Down

By Tom Wadsworth, Editor

At the International Builders’ Show in Orlando in February, the garage door buzz indicated that sales had dropped off suddenly at the beginning of 2008 … as if someone had suddenly turned off the spigot.

Yet, these rumors are unreliable and reveal the perspectives of only a handful of people. In addition, we don’t know if this drop is part of a typical seasonal downturn that always happens at that time of year.

Are overall garage door sales up or down? Is the sluggish housing market beginning to strangle our industry?

Inquiring door dealers want to know. To get a good picture of overall sales for our industry, Door & Access Systems conducted an online survey, collecting input from almost 190 door dealers throughout the United States and Canada.

The results in a nutshell? In the garage door world, overall business remains flat. Commercial sales are up slightly, but residential sales are slipping.

Three Questions

Our survey asked three key questions. We first asked dealers if their residential sales in 2007 showed an improvement over 2006. Of the 176 dealers who responded, 41.5 percent said yes, sales were up. But 58.5 percent said their residential sales had not improved.

Our second question asked if their 2007 commercial sales had improved over 2006. Out of 167 responses, 60.5 percent said commercial sales had improved, while 39.5 percent said they had not.

Our third question asked dealers to quantify the difference between their total sales in 2007 with 2006. We didn’t ask for specific sales numbers, but instead asked them to check a box to indicate if sales were the same, up or down 5 percent, 10 percent, etc.

The number of dealers reporting higher sales slightly outpaced the number of dealers reporting lower sales. The average response indicated that the typical dealer experienced a slight sales increase of only 0.75 percent in 2007.

The Bottom Line

The current slump in the housing industry is having a negative effect on sales of residential garage doors. However, increased sales of commercial garage doors are making up for the deficit on the residential side of the business. Overall, sales by garage door dealers in 2007 surpassed 2006 sales, but only slightly.

CHARTS

1. Comparing your residential sales for 2006 with 2007, have your residential sales improved?
Yes 41.5%
No 58.5%
Total respondents: 176

2. Comparing your commercial sales for 2006 with 2007, have your commercial sales improved?
Yes 60.5%
No 39.5%
Total respondents: 167

3. Comparing your total sales in 2006 with 2007, are your total sales revenues up or down?
Sales Change / Percent of Respondents
Up 30%+ / 3.7%
Up 25% / 3.2%
Up 20% / 3.7%
Up 15% / 6.4%
Up 10% / 14.4%
Up 5% / 14.4%
Same / 13.4%
Down 5% / 14.4%
Down 10% / 8.6%
Down 15% / 3.2%
Down 20% / 7.0%
Down 25% / 3.2%
Down 30%+ / 2.7%
Total respondents: 186

This exclusive Door & Access Systems survey was conducted from Jan. 22 to Feb. 2, 2008. The online survey was sent to 790 garage door dealers throughout the United States and Canada; 191 responded.