What do you do after creating one of largest and best known parts suppliers in the UK out of nothing – and then end up selling it? Simple. You do it all over again.
Sukhpal Ahluwalia founded what evolved into Euro Car Parts when he was just 17 back in the late ‘70s, opening a small corner site motorists shop called Highway Autos.
Coincidentally, around the same time, Stan West launched Vee Wee; a parts business primarily for Volkswagens. In 1987, it grew to become ‘German and Swedish’, then, in 2000, its acquisition by Andyspares saw it renamed German, Swedish, and French – or GSF for short.
By this time Highway Autos had been rebranded Euro Car Parts, with its expansion and product services diversification resulting in a LKQ Corporation buying it from Ahluwalia for a reported £225m in 2011.
Fast forward 12 years and a strange opportunity emerges for Ahluwalia to get back into the aftermarket. After acquiring GSF owner Uni-Select last year, LKQ was ordered by the UK Competition and Markets Authority to sell GSF.
Enter Ahluwalia and Epiris Private Equity. The pair acquired the GSF Car Parts business, including all 180 of its company-operated stores.
What attracted Ahluwalia to the company, bearing in mind he was essentially starting all over again against a well-known and well established market leading competitor?
“I started in the motor parts business when I was just 17. It’s in my blood, and that never left me when I sold ECP in 2011,” he told CAT.
“The last decade has been a personal journey for me. After selling ECP, I started planning my return to India and spending more time on the ground there. I was executive chairman of LKQ’s businesses in India until 2018 and invested more time in my charity work. One of my proudest achievements was helping to build a school near Delhi.
“But somehow entrepreneurial ventures have a way of finding me, and while this was going on, my property business Dominus really started to take off. This is what pulled my focus back to the UK.
“It was not long after I was able to completely hand over my property business to my three sons that another opportunity came knocking: GSF.”
He added: “My detailed knowledge of GSF stretches back to the eighties and my friendly rivalry with GSF’s founder Stan West. GSF evolved to become a merging of 10 separate and different independent motor factor businesses under the ownership of Uni-Select.
“Over the years, GSF had many different management teams and strategies – but constantly suffered with a lack of investment. Despite this, I knew that GSF branches had excellent, loyal staff with superb personal relationships with their local customers, particularly independent garages.
“Uni-Select became more interested in selling GSF in late 2023. But I never thought of GSF as starting all over again. I knew the strength of the business – after all, when I was building ECP with the team, GSF had always been our toughest competitor.”
What attracted him to the sale? “When we got under the bonnet of the business, we saw that GSF was a sleeping giant with one of best teams and brands in the business, but that it had been starved of capital and investment for years,” he said. “We sought to right these wrongs, and committed to invest properly in the business from day one.”
Under the guidance of Ahluwalia and long-time friend Steve Horne as CEO, the firm has opened a raft of new branches – 15 so far in 2024 – regional distribution hubs, increased stock profiles, added hundreds of new delivery vans, and just, as he says, generally bring the firm into the 21st Century.
Since the acquisition GSF’s fortunes have risen and Ahluwalia says he sees the hidden potential of GSF to make it even better than the company he first built up from scratch.
“The last 12 months have been a complete whirlwind,” he said. “It feels like we’re doing something genuinely exciting: bringing competition back to the motor parts trade and giving our customers a fresh choice.
“I feel that energy whenever I go into our branches – whether it’s our long-established ones or our completely new ones. We’re all pushing to be the best business we can for our customers. Competition is good, and we’re bringing that back to the sector.”
Ahluwalia adds: “We’re frankly obsessed with delivering fast, friendly and easy-to-deal-with service that finds the right parts – in short, service that gets it right every time. After all, independent garages need to maximise income from limited workshop space to prosper.”
Further expansion is also on the cards. “We have plans and budgets for a significant increase in our branch footprint, which is already 200-strong,” he said. “We want to be wherever our customers are.”
After dealing with the fallout of Covid and the continuing conflict in Ukraine, the UK aftermarket is just emerging from a turbulent time but Ahluwalia remains extremely optimistic.
“The future for the UK independent aftermarket looks extremely bright. The average age of the car parc has increased from five years to 10 years in a generation. Plus, eight out of ten workshop entries, for servicing, repairs, and MOT, are to independent garages.
“At the same time, vehicle mileage is well above pre-Covid, whereas public transport is significantly down. Today, people clearly value the convenience and comfort of point-to-point mobility.
“Although the technical requirements are increasing every year, we and others can assist this transformation with cost-effective training and equipment. And especially while their franchised-dealer competitors are struggling to contain their costs and market effectively.
“Of course, the increased share of pure battery-electric vehicles will gradually change our business, but research shows that the share of BEVs in the 3+ year old parc will remain below 10% until well into the 2030s.
“The main challenges are from the vehicle manufacturers themselves, whose strategy seems to be making life difficult for independent aftermarket competitors. Fortunately, we have the vigorous support of organisations such as IAAF to defend our sector.
He added: “We also need to answer why people should want to work in the independent aftermarket. There are many reasons, but I like to remind everyone of the vital role we play in enabling low-cost mobility – for driving to work, taking kids to school, and delivering parcels. This is a valuable service to society.”
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