What’s driving sales at Uni-Select

Increased demand and higher prices are what’s behind Uni-Select Inc.’s increase in its third-quarter consolidated sales, the company announced this month.

Its consolidated sales were up 7.8 per cent in the last quarter. The company largely credited its performance to additional vendor rebates in all its segments and price increases in the Canadian Automotive Group and the FinishMaster U.S. groups.

Uni-Select said it benefitted from organic growth and streamlined cost structures. This helped offset higher expense levels compared to the same period in 2020 when it benefitted from government assistance programs, lower labour costs resulting from temporary employee layoffs, a reduction of working hours and temporarily closing company-operated stores as the pandemic reduced demand.

In Canada specifically, the company’s Canadian Automotive Group saw an increase of 5.3 per cent, buoyed by a stronger Canadian dollar and acquisitions. Organic growth dropped 1 per cent but Uni-Select explained that high demand following the easing of pandemic-related restriction at the same point last year pushed numbers higher.

For the first nine months of the year, however, the Canadian Automotive Group reported a 12.3 per cent increase in sales compared to the previous year.

Going forward, the company expects the rest of the year to be good overall. That said, Uni-Select is “cautiously optimistic for the fourth quarter and next year as we manage through the ongoing challenges related to supply chain shortages and labour costs,” observed Brian McManus, executive chair and chief executive officer of Uni-Select in the news release.