AD MAGAZINE 342

38 March 2018 | AutoData MARKET » CONCESSIONAIRES By Marcos Rozen From soup to roast beef Number of houses in the distribution network should not grow in Brazil this year. But at least it will stop falling. Disclousure/GM T he concessionaire network in Brazil will stop reducing its size in 2018. This is the expectation of Alarico As- sumpção Jr., president of Fenabrave, National Federation of Automotive Vehicle Distribution. According to the calculations of the entity, the country lost 1 thousand 274 homes in the last three years, considering from January 2015 to January 2018 - 726 were car and light commercial dealers, 196 of trucks, buses and agricultural ma- chinery and 352 of motorcycles. In practice, the total number of stores that closed the doors is higher, 1 thousand 890, but the final average is lower by the opening, in the same period, of 616 stores, especially the brands that were structuring newnetworks such asAudi, BMWandJeep, plus some premium motorcycle brands. To reach this number Fenabrave had to make a complicated calculation. Un- til then the reference used was to close CNPJs, but the association realized that this process masked the truth: sometimes the concessionaire closed the business of a unit but kept the CNPJ active not to