Hyundai Aims to Improve Dealer Profitability

Washington DC January 18, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that Steve Wilhite, COO of Hyundai Motor America, announced yesterday that the South Korean automaker will seek to help its U.S. dealers generate a 2.5 percent return on sales by 2008.

That goal will provide a healthy boost to Hyundai's dealer profitability, now averaging 1.4 percent, just slightly below the national average of 1.6 percent. Hyundai's exclusive dealers, who make up just over half of its total dealers in the U.S., average a 1.9 percent return on sales.

By the end of 2007, Hyundai expects to raise its number of U.S. dealerships from 752 to somewhere between 780 and 800. By 2012, according to the Detroit News, Hyundai aims to increase its number of retail sales per outlet from 550 on average, to 800.