New Euro Car Parts owners LKQ will quickly export its aftermarket crash repair parts model to the UK and help to deliver faster than ever growth for the UK company.
Bosses of the US firm told investors in a web conference today that growing ECP’s crash repair parts business, and forging more ties with insurance companies, would be the number one priority over the first 120 days of its ownership.
ECP has already started out on this path, stocking replacement bumpers and body panels at its distribution centres, but LKQ president and CEO Robert Wagman said its involvement would provide more expertise to ECP and accelerate the development.
Wagman said that at the moment less than 10% of crash repairs use aftermarket parts in the UK compared with 37% in the US.
In the US this has grown from 23% in 2000 when LKQ embarked on its alternative part usage drive for crash repairs.
Wagman is confident insurance companies in the UK will also embrace the move as they look to reduce costs, and says ECP is ideally placed to bring the growth in the use of alternative parts considering its distribution network and IT infrastructure.
Overall LKQ puts the alternative crash repair parts market at between $2 to $3 billion in the UK.
Purchasing teams at ECP and LKQ have already made contact with each other to identify potential savings and economies of scale, while the purchase is also part of LKQ’s eventually move into the European market.
Some of ECP’s parts will also eventually make their way over to the US, chiefly cooling parts to be used in crash repair work.
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