By Katie Davis T he housing market is not the only thing that is on fire these days in Canada. I do not know if we can credit Trudeau with this, but auto sales in Canada hit a record in April with 200,000 sold for the first time.
The automotive consulting firm, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, says that of the total sales
reported for cars and light trucks
tallied up to 200,327 units for the month of April, which is up 6% from last April’s
189,072 units, making it a record month.
DesRosiers also stated that light truck sales were up 16.3% to 127,753 units for April, up from 109,814 a year ago. However, car sales saw a drop of 8.4% with only 72,574 units sold compared to 79,258 units in April 2015.
Numbers are showing a strong start to 2016 as with April’s figures in, the total for the year to date up 8.1% to 603,223 units from 557,645 in the first four months of 2015. This is a very good sign given that auto sales in Canada set a record last year with 1.9 million light vehicles sold.
However, DesRosiers said it did not expect the record pace to hold for the remainder of 2016, but added with the strong start to the year we could be heading for a new record for 2016.
By Katie Davis G ap Inc. says it will shutter 75 Old Navy and Banana Republic stores outside North America as the struggling company looks to focus on regions where it sees it has the greatest potential for success.
has said that it is closing 53 Old Navy stores in Japan, and a number of Banana Republic stores internationally.
The announcement comes as Gap reported a 47% drop in first-quarter profit. Gap Inc. revenue fell nearly 6% over the same time period and all three of its brands have suffered declines in key sales indexes.
CEO Art Peck had promised investors that Gap would see a turnaround this spring, but that has not materialized so the San Francisco company
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • JUNE 2016
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