Auto Repair Shop Feasibility Study in the Akron, OH Metro Area

Auto repair in the Akron area

In Akron, OH automotive mechanical repair is the seventh class, 7 of 39, and nationally the area sits at 65 of 660. Akron approved 30 loans for $4.7 million, counting FY2017 through FY2026. The two ratios point the same way. A location quotient of 0.65x puts repair shops under their weight in the country's loans, and the median loan of $50,000 is only 0.21x the national median for repair shops, the lesser of the two ratios. Shop loans here are small.

Tiny tickets and one dominant holder

Loans from $25,000 to $112,000 fill the middle half, so a typical loan funds tools, a lift or working capital, not a building. Summit County, OH accounts for 25 loans and Portage County, OH for 5. Most of the area's record sits with one name: The Huntington National Bank, which SBA lists for 19 loans under 7(a), worth $2.4 million. That is a holder record and says nothing about how those loans were arranged. Program counts and the franchise share are not printed.

FY2017 shows 5 loans and $152,700, and FY2018 shows 5 loans and $951,000. FY2020 shows 0 loans and $0: no loan was approved that year. The jump in dollars between the first two years at the same loan count points to a larger loan in FY2018. Years that are not listed have counts too small to show. Rates for cancellation and charge-off are withheld by Loan Analytics because a rate needs 30 loans in the cohort.

Limits, and what a shop study in this area has to test

The class does not separate truck service from car repair, and body and paint shops, upholstery, windshield work, oil-change lanes and every other repair type not listed here are outside it. For Akron, the July 2023 delineation must list the county where the financed shop stands, or the loan is not counted. With loans this small, a study should ask whether the borrower is starting a shop or buying into an existing one, test the number of bays against the vehicles a realistic radius can supply, and show technicians the shop can keep. Tool and equipment cost belongs in the plan. Lenders need the debt payment shown as covered when the shop is quiet.