GSF Car Parts’s new 500,000sq ft national distribution hub (NDC) allows the firm to “fight for the title”, CEO Steve Horne told CAT as it went behind the scenes of the firm’s new Wolverhampton base.
Acquired in May, the hub this month went fully operational allowing GSF to take on the likes of aftermarket giants LKQ Euro Car Parts.
Now up and running, the hub services 139 branches with stock “sold by 6pm one day back on the shelves by 8am the next,” according to Horne. He added that the firm has needed the hub “for a very long time” – and was a “key reason for wanting to take on GSF”.
“We have moved GSF from the Championship to the Premier League; this hub now allows us to compete for the title,” he said.
The opening of the hub follows a period of rapid growth for the car parts distributor, which now has more than 185 branches – 16 opened in the past month – and 3,000 team members across the country. The firm recently announced ambitions to open another 40 in 2025.
With an aim to improve supply chain infrastructure, the Wolverhampton centre brings together office space, advanced logistics tech – including eight-level access loading doors. The future-proofing hub is also expandable to 750,000sq ft.
By centralising distribution, the company said it will also be able to streamline logistics, boosting service levels and “positioning GSF Car Parts as a formidable national player in the automotive parts industry”.
Last year GSF was sold to UK-based private equity firm Epiris, with Euro Car Parts founder Sukhpal Ahluwalia co-investing.
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