March 27, 2018—Boyd Group CEO Brock Bulbuck reported the technician shortage “negatively impacted” fourth-quarter sales.
Boyd posted sales of $414.6 million in the fourth quarter. Same-store sales made up $359.5 million of that amount.
Same-store sales rose 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 and 5.3 percent for the year, according to the report.
“We have been working to address this shortage with a number of initiatives to attract new technicians and increase retention,” he said. “To date, this has translated into improved same-store sales growth in the first quarter, moving towards, but not yet reaching our historical levels of average quarterly same-store sales growth. “
Bulbuck announced the group will be increasing vacation pay and holiday pay for technicians, as well as doubling company contributions and caps for the 401k retirement savings plan, according to the press release.
“In terms of new location growth, we continue to see many opportunities to add new centers and we have the capacity, with approximately $400 million in 'dry powder,' to act on opportunities,” Bulbuck said.
