The just-released 2004 AED Product Support Best Practices Report found dealers, on average, had 1057 parts customers on their books, and the best dealers retained 92.5 per cent of them year-to-year.

The Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) says typical US equipment dealers keep more than USD2.2 million in spare parts in stock, and retain 80.6 per cent of their parts customers.

The survey found that typical "heavy dealers" were those whose major sales were in equipment greater than 100 horsepower and maintained a parts inventory of USD2,223,123.

There was a huge gap between heavy and medium-class dealers (those who sold mainly equipment of less than 100 horsepower), who maintained an inventory of just USD413,965 - more than 80 per cent less than heavy dealers.

The Product Support Best Practices Report is based on in-depth surveys of AED members' parts, service and product support departments, and is designed to allow dealers to benchmark against the operating results of other dealers in specific segments.

For more information, or to order a copy of the report, see www.aednet.org.