Euro Car Parts has opened a new 400,000 sqft national distribution centre in Tamworth – investing £15 million in new stock in the process.

Located off junction 10 of the M42, the centre is in the middle of the UK motorway network and has a major rail-freight terminal less than half a mile away.

With over 103,000 part lines, the centre provides ECP branches across the UK with overnight delivery six days a week.

“This is the largest single investment ECP has ever made,” said owner Sukhpal Singh. “It will improve accuracy and speed when it comes to replenishing branches, giving us maximum reach across the country with minimum journey times.”

The centre, which has a mezzanine, 16 dock levellers and a minimum 12 million eaves height, also benefits from the latest wireless warehouse management technology for efficient monitoring, picking and ordering of stock.

“This centre lays the foundation for future growth and opens up strategic buying opportunities, allowing us to expand products and ranges,” said Singh.

With 12,000 sqft of open plan offices, a training centre and conference room accommodating 100 people, the new building could also become ECP’s new HQ.

Eight more distribution hubs are set to open across the country – each holding 40,000 stock-keeping units and each incorporating training centres for staff.

“This lays the foundation for ECP to become a true national player,” said Singh. With two new branches in Kent and Wolverhampton now up and running, plus another 15 due to open by the end of the year, it is difficult to disagree.

Specifically, my job title will be digital product manager and I will be tasked with growing the site commercially and driving paid-for content forward. It’s a little daunting when I think about it, as online publishing is probably my weakest area; but by the same token it’s also hugely exciting as I will be learning a considerable amount.

I have had the most fantastic three years working in the aftermarket. It is a fabulous industry, full of some of the most driven people I have met – as well as some of the most creative. I guess you have to be creative in the face of VM competition if you’re to make money!

While heading CAT I have learned more about running a brand than I could have imagined. I hope that the title is in better shape now than it was when I took the helm at the end of 2007.

I know there is much work still to be done, but my successor – David Harris – is definitely the man to do it. He has aftermarket experience, is a proven publisher and I am sure will drive CAT on to greater things still.

Key in his remit should be:

• To improve the website, driving traffic to it and turning it into a viable commercial proposition
• To turn the CAT Awards into the must-attend social event of the year
• To ensure CAT remains the best, most independent aftermarket B2B brand
• To develop the Directory brand online and in print

I am certain he can do that.

He will have my help and support should he need it, as I will only be upstairs (on floor 5).

Anyway, before you all start crying onto your desks at the prospect of a Foster-less aftermarket (I think editor Emma is actually relishing the idea after sitting opposite me for three years) I thought I’d sign off with my ’most memorable’ memories of my time in this most incredible of industries…

Emma and German beer that was bigger than her. Or so it seemed.

 1 Automechanika 2008 

It was my first visit to an Automechanika and there I was, merrily taking photos of the Trico stand for Nigel Cole, when along came a couple of burly (and I mean burly) German geezers, covered in tats and with shaven heads. They wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Millwall football hooligan gang.

“Vhere eez your photo passz?” One of them hissed. Uh oh.

“Erm, I am press?” I tried to offer back. Not good enough. They grabbed me by the arms and ‘arrested’ me, before taking me to have my camera confiscated at security HQ.  Seeing as it was my own camera, I was not amused. Trouble was, neither were they.

After my camera had been taken off my person, I had to walk – accompanied by messrs Thug and Hooligan – all the way back to the press centre (a good 20 minutes trudging) where they verified I was from CAT and gave me permission to take photos.

Then it was 20 minutes trudging back to the security point to collect my camera again. Lesson learned – when you go to Automechanika, if you take a camera, get permission to use it!

Also on that trip, memories of talking to a guy called Fenton Rixon – who was trying to sell space in the aftermarket section of the Autosport Show 2009.

Fenton was full of doom and gloom about the impending financial crisis.

“The banks will all collapse! Take all your money out and stuff it under the mattress! Cash is king!” he was telling me. Two years on and wer’e still here. Hurrah for that, Fenton!

Also at this show was the Trico night, where much beer was consumed and editor Emma drank a beer in one go that was bigger than her. Most impressive!

Fenton Rixon: Doom! Gloom! Put your cash under your mattress!

2 Plastered in Paris

At Equip Auto last year in Paris, editor Emma and I ended up getting slightly merry on beers that cost a whacking 10 Euro a pint. Well actually we got plastered. We were in our hotel bar when I spied a piano! Not being one to hide a light under my bushel, I made a lunge for the piano stool and started playing. Badly. I had double vision, which makes playing piano slightly tricky, as it’s hard to control two hands, let alone when you think you have four.

The more I played, the louder the background music became in the bar and check-in area. Until eventually, two butch French security guards (with tats, and who wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Millwall hooligan gang) came over to physically tear me away from the instrument.

Maybe it was because I was playing a track by the Pet Shop Boys, after something by Elton John.

3 Visiting Sykes Pickavant

This is probably memorable for all the wrong reasons! Lobby (sales exec Karen Reilly) and I had put together what we thought was a fabulous proposal to get tool company Sykes Pickavant involved in some way with the CAT brand. We weren’t after much investment, just a little support perhaps, just so they could see that CAT might be a viable marketing tool for them to exploit.

As such we’d booked a slot to see Dave Mekie, the company’s marketing director, at their HQ in Walsall. But what a waste of time, money and effort it all turned out to be. A day in my life that was totally pointless.

After our presentation to Dave (and his PR assistant, who was lovely) demonstrating how CAT goes out to over 17,000 readers, outlining the demographics of our subscriber base (which included over 9,000 independent garages), Mekie summarily dismissed pretty much everything we’d said. It was obvious he didn’t like CAT, was never going to like CAT and possibly didn’t even believe we went out to garages.

So why bother wasting his time, and ours, seeing us?

And why, if CAT is not right for Sykes, do they keep sending us press releases? All questions I will never be able to answer! I shan’t miss days like this in my next role. Fortunately days like this were very rare on CAT.

You can’t win ‘em all!

Martin, Emma and me on a CAT day out. Lobby was behind the camera.

A day of much merriment and bonding followed. As usual though, I went one step too far. (That should be my epitah – ‘he went one step too far!)

While queueing for Stealth (one of the fastest accelerating roller coasters at 0-80mph in 2.5 seconds), Martin Lee – our sales manager – wasn’t moving as fast as the queue was. So I whacked him hard on the posterior to get him moving, same way you’d whack a cow on the arse if it wasn’t going into the milking shed properly.

Poor old Martin. He jumped out of his skin. Now, ever since I did that, whenever I move my arm near Martin he flinches!

5 Visit to Corteco HQ

Sometimes you meet clients you just click with. They get where you’re coming from, we understand what they need and the relationship works brilliantly both ways.

The guys at Corteco – Steve, Satbinder and Reiner – are all like that. What top blokes. They paid for Karen, Emma and I to visit their HQ in Germany, which we did do. A great time was had by all, even during a factory tour that actually proved quite interesting!

While being shown round Freudenburg HQ, I spied a football table. Reiner Martsfeld said he was pretty good, so I said we could have a Germany v England rematch, the first time England would have played Germany at football on German soil since we hammered them 5-1 (even Heskey scored that night).

Alas, Mr Martsfeld bottled it and the match never happened. Probably just as well for me, really. I’d have lost on penalties!

Reiner Martsfeld of Freudenberg. He bottled a game of table football with me!

Thank you

And that’s it from me. Thank you all for your support of CAT during my tenure. I hope we helped you grow your business along the way. I’m proud to leave CAT in a very strong position – we pride ourselves on delivering a top-notch product each month, something that won’t change no matter who is publisher.

My email remains the same – jim.foster@haymarket.com. I look forward to staying in touch with you all!

Autonational have pleasure in announcing an increased range of dual mass fly wheel clutch kits to our range these are brand new and come with a 2 year or 20,000 miles warranty. This range is in addition to our already 200 plus clutch kits for a wide range of vehicles they are brand new replacements fully guaranteed, major manufacturers are used to supply this range for more details please visit our website to view all our catalogue range – www.autonationalltd.co.uk

From hoses to accessories, Gates demonstrates the quality and quantity of its cooling systems range in this impressive 2010 catalogue. From passenger cars to light commercials, every product section has been updated, extended and improved. A comprehensive set of listings includes what’s new, what’s been cancelled and what’s been replaced. Product data is ordered by size and is augmented by manufacturer part numbers and illustrations. Easy cross-referencing and fast parts identification are major features of its layout. For instance, all radiator caps and expansion tank caps are shown in front, side and rear views. Visit www.gatesautocat.com for more details.

Revolution's new Subaru web shop

CAT Magazine’s Retailer of the Year, Revolution Performance Motorstores, has had a busy start to the new decade, not only winning the 2010 accolade but expanding its internet retailing operations.

The Gateshead-based retailer has launched a new website targeting Subaru Impreza owners. The online store deals solely with lines for the Subaru marque and has a particular emphasis on the Impreza.

The website includes fitment guides and Revolution claims the wheel section houses Europe’s largest online wheel and tyre store for the Subaru marque.

It has more than 150 styles of wheels on display and offers 33,000 fully priced wheel and tyre packages.

Tuning, styling and maintenance products are also well served with secure online payment facilities that use 3D encryption technology and password account protection.

“We are genuinely excited about this next chapter in Subaru online retailing,” said managing director Glenn Campbell.

“By grouping all these products on one dedicated site, we’ve created a convenient facility for our customers, helping them to navigate more quickly and easily.”

The Automotive Distribution Federation will now represent independent garages in the UK as well as parts distributors and parts suppliers, CAT has learned.

The Federation, which says it is responding to the current lack of lobbying for independent repairers, announced this morning that it will change its name to the Independent Automotive Aftermarket Federation, or IAAF.

More soon…

Denso hope the promotion will mean more technicians fitting their OE quality parts

CAT has exclusively learned that Denso is to launch a massive sales promotion in the new year: aimed solely at UK factors and distributors.

The scheme – which we believe will be labelled the ‘Millionaires Club’ – will be backed up by a huge marketing budget.

A glamorous prize structure is likely to be put in place, with luxury trips to Europe’s top F1 events on offer (among other prizes) to Denso’s top-performing distributors.

The scheme is designed to recruit new distributors for Denso, as well as increase business within the company’s existing customer network.

Distributors that reach individually-set targets are likely to benefit the most.

CAT believes that the ambitious scheme is scheduled to run until the end of March – we’ll post more live here as and when we find out more details.

Q: Congratulations on putting Chapter 11 behind you – how will this influence Delphi’s aftermarket strategy going forward?

A: The move into becoming a private company is a major event. It allows us to focus on our key areas of expertise and on geographic expansion.

We’re now moving our products into Eastern Europe, we’ve established an office in Russia, we have a new office in Poland and we’ve expanded in North Africa.

Q: What about Western Europe and the UK – are these still important markets for Delphi?

A: Of course – as Frank Ordoñez [Delphi’s vice president] has said, 40% of Delphi’s aftermarket sales are to the European markets and about 20% of our global Delphi Service Centre network is in the UK.

Q: How many service centres are there right now?

A: There are 509 globally and 104 in the UK. Delphi Service Centre is a key strategic initiative for Delphi and we have ambitious growth plans for the programme.

We launched the network in 2007, which was a strategic decision. There was a timing issue – if we had put it into the market in 2000, that would have been too early and 2011 would have been too late.

We needed to make sure the diesel market was mature enough for our garage partners to make a return on their investment in one to two years.

Q: Do you think you got the timing right?

A: In the UK, the garages’ return on investment is in labour and parts and while of course we want them to sell Delphi parts, we need to give them that return on labour.

For most garages, the proof point is one year to 18 months. And by the end of year one, we found that in the majority of cases, the return was around 10-15% above what we forecast.

Q: How many more centres are you planning to add to the UK network in this phase of expansion?

A: We don’t want to get into a numbers game – we’ll grow at the rate that the market requires it; we don’t want saturation. We need to find a balance by looking at each individual market and establishing how many centres it can support.

The worst thing is to create a network which subsequently fails in years two, three and four. It’s incredibly difficult for you to clean it up.

Q: So how do you control network size and concentration?

A: We don’t grant exclusive territories but in cases where there is an existing Service Centre and another garage wants to join, we ask: is there enough of a market to allow both of them to succeed.

Too much competition forces businesses to reduce costs. I’ve seen saturation a number of times and what happens is that the market drives down to the lowest quality of components and the lowest quality of labour – it’s a lose-lose situation.

Q: What sort of investment have you made in the programme this year?

A: We’ve introduced 400 new parts and new diagnostic tooling and we’ve enhanced training with six new modules. We’re also preparing to launch a new online training platform and marketing support programme for garages.

Q: What is the business opportunity for garages getting involved in diesel now?

A: There are currently around 4.5 million diesel vehicles over four years old, which means that they have moved out of warranty. From now on this figure really starts to ramp up so that by 2012 the aftermarket for diesel cars will be 7 million units. That’s a rapid rise, and we anticipated it when we designed the Delphi Service Centre.

Diesel penetration in Europe is now 57% and in France it’s 72%. It’s quite astounding – when I first came into the business, I didn’t think we would ever get diesel into cars.

Q: What impact will the move into alternative powertrain technology have on the market’s potential?

A: Electric vehicles will take market share certainly but diesel will have to play a role in hybrid vehicles so in this market it won’t lose share. Looking at the dwindling supply of petroleum, the best thing is to use it sparingly, which diesel does.

The Delphi Service Centre is a modular programme, designed to help garages to service the latest vehicle systems, including engine management for diesel and petrol, air conditioning and braking, steering and suspension. The programme is structured round six key elements: diagnostics, tooling, training, technical support, parts and professional marketing support.

Marko Wowcyzna: sales and marketing director, SOGEFI

SOGEFI has developed an online ‘marketing toolbox’ designed to increase sales for its UK distributors.

And the company is claiming that distributors could gain extra business by using the site to create bespoke marketing campaigns for its products.

The toolbox allows distributors to:

• Create and action direct mail campaigns
• Access professionally designed templates for leaflets, adverts and fliers
• Design bespoke marketing campaigns for individual garage customers

The web-based tool kit – found on a secure site – has the potential to boost sales of air, oil, fuel and cabin filters.

“The tool kit allows factors to create their own local promotions and to effectively communicate the advantages of OE-quality filters and grow profits,” said Marko Wowcyzna, marketing director of SOGEFI.

In future, distributors will also be able to use the site to order SOGEFI-published literature to support their campaigns.

In 2008 31k people visited Automechanika in Shanghai – a 40% increase on 2007

Do you have an ingrained tendency to recoil in horror at the mere mention of China in relation to the replacement parts market?

The country’s association with “white box” products or “Chinese copy parts” has, understandably, made a lot of legitimate traders in the UK view its exports with suspicion.

But although the association with counterfeit parts persists – only this summer Contitech successfully took one dodgy manufacturer there to task after it ripped off its belts – things are changing.

Already many of the biggest and most well respected parts suppliers are using Chinese factories or have opened their own manufacturing plants there.

Labour there is still relatively cheap (although wages are rising and thus becoming less competitive) and quality has improved dramatically – though you need to know where to find it.

China’s rise to global industrial super power was underlined this summer when it became the world’s largest automotive market with sales of 6.1m new cars in the first six months of the year – 1.3m more than in the US.

Sales forecasts of 11m vehicles by the end of 2009 would put the country’s motor industry 2m units ahead of 2007 figures. And this influx of new cars has created unprecedented demand for replacement parts and aftersales services.

Freedonia Group predicts that the aftermarket for light vehicle components in China will grow 17.9 percent annually through to 2011.

CAT GOES EAST
So what, if anything, does this all mean for the UK aftermarket and, ultimately, the companies working at the sharp end distributing installing and selling parts and accessories to the consumer?

In December, I’ll be putting my investigative hat on and jetting off to the fifth Automechanika exhibition in Shanghai to find out first hand.

It will be my first visit to China and, despite the fact that I’ll be spending more time on a plane and in an exhibition hall than out and about soaking up the sights and sounds of Shanghai, I’m really looking forward to it.

Yes I must confess that I am one of those strange people who actually enjoy airline food, although my experiences to date of exhibition hall fare have not been what you might call inspiring!

Can the Shanghai New International Expo centre rival the NEC in the sandwich stakes? After I’ve covered the serious stuff, I’ll report fully on this pressing question.

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
But my real mission in Shanghai is to seek out opportunities for (and indeed potential threats to) the UK independent aftermarket.

So if you have a question you would like to put to the trade out there or an issue you’d like to look in to,
I’m your woman.

You can get in touch by emailing me at emma.butcher@haymarket.com, calling me on +44 (0) 208 267 5906 or even leaving a message on this post.