Press Release
Dales reduces stocking days by over 20% with help from Indicata
Dales Central Motors is celebrating reducing its used car stocking days by 11 days thanks to onboarding Indicata’s used car pricing and insights platform
Utilising Indicata data has helped reduce stocking days from 51 days to 40 days since it onboarded the system across the group 24 months ago.
Dales runs seven different franchises and a multi brand van centre from two sites in Cornwall and typically stocks 300-400 used vehicles at any one time across the group.
The family business which was set up in 1959 sells one in every three or four used cars sold in Cornwall and uses Indicata to help set competitive pricing on forecourt cars as well as supporting its dealers with part exchange prices.
Danny Fox, Dales group sales manager in charge of conducting the group’s used car stock strategy which focusses on stock turn not just individual car profitability. It involves weekly group stock reviews supported by an external monthly meeting with Indicata’s customer success manager to go through the status of every used car in detail.
He said: “Our pricing matrix is focused on stock turn as we know that if we get that right that used car profitability will follow. Indicata has helped us reduce our stocking days by 11 days which is a great result.
“Indicata helps us identify the cars that are in high demand and in low supply in Cornwall so we know we can be very bullish on pricing those cars. Indicata’s system gives us an umbrella view of every car and its individual status including pricing and imagery, so we give each car the best possible chance of selling quickly.
“With the current used market short of stock our weekly pricing review will often encourage us to increase prices on certain models rather than reduce them which we wouldn’t necessarily have the confidence to do without Indicata’s data,” he added.
Twelve sales managers and business managers including Danny have access to Indicata. Group stock is reviewed and priced weekly while each brand specialist is given the power to finetune pricing on individual cars based on their specific franchise knowledge.
The Dales team is very proactive and in months like March and September it will identify the part exchange stock coming in from new car sales and price them up ready to get them up for sale online even before they have arrived from customers.
Online stock visibility is very important for Dales as currently around 10% of sales come from buyers outside of Cornwall and Indicata plays its part in supporting this activity.
“Indicata gives us a national sweep of the used stock in the total market. This nationwide overview of prices enables us to gauge where a car sit from a local and national perspective. We sell around 10% of our used stock nationally and particularly on the higher cost Cupras, buyers are looking for something very specific and will travel to buy a car in a specific spec and colour,” explained Fox.
Dales has embraced EVs over the past few years as the average Cornish driver typically makes multiple smaller journeys which fits in well with optimising an electric car. Therefore the £10-15,000 retail price bracket for EVs is very buoyant and Dales will often buy 10-15 Renault Zoes or similar to meet this local demand.
“EV prices have been on a rollercoaster over the past couple of years and we have been able to rely on Indicata prices as they are generated in real time. The market has often moved weekly, and we can be confident that we are making decisions based on the very latest data,” said Fox.
