Trade clubs target increase in independent members

However, although its club has 58,000 members, only 21,000 source parts each month, admits manager Jim Williams. At the start of the year, Vauxhall announced its intention to raise by 10 per cent the number of independents using the club and Williams claims it has already succeeded. “It's all about creating greater awareness of the trade club among our dealer network,” said Williams. “We've got probably the largest database of independents but, like everyone, we have some dealers who are strong in the market and those who are happy to let customers come to them. “It's not about attracting more members but persuading existing ones to become more active.” His opposite number at Ford, Richard Brown, the manager of its Parts Plus programme, provides a parts service to around 40,000 independent motor traders through a 140-strong specialist dealer network. incentivising “Over the past 12 months my role has been to reinvigorate Parts Plus and we have featured very heavily on incentivising the customer,” said Brown. “This week will see the launch of a programme called Rally to Ford which will be the biggest single marketing programme we've ever done for Parts Plus.” Essentially a loyalty programme, independent traders that achieve targets will be rewarded with gifts such as DVD players or Ford products. Formerly part of MG Rover and acquired last year by Cat Logistics, X-Part is an independent all-makes parts distributor. “In the UK, we've always had a network of wholesalers, unlike the other manufacturers,” said chairman John Parkinson. “Over the past 10 years they've become increasingly multi-franchise and certainly out of the 90 that we've got, the top 40 are very active with the independents and we've seen an increase in the sale of OE parts to this group.” Parkinson predicts even greater competition among parts distributors supplying independents next year. “I think the landscape will have changed in the sense that, outside of the warranty period, more servicing is going to be done by non-franchised dealers. I think the all-makes repairer is going to expand as a model substantially. “I'm talking about authorised and independent workshops based on the edge of towns. “You've only got to look at the way bodyshops have gone. “Twenty-five years ago, franchised dealers had their own in-house bodyshops, but over the past few years, all of those bodyshops have moved off-site, due to a combination of health and safety and cost of land and buildings. They've become multi-franchise, factory-type operations on low-cost estates. “The same thing will happen with servicing. “I also think we're going to see these outlets winning back some business from the fast-fits.” Almost 12 months after Lookers bought parts warehouse distributor FPS for £31 million, the acquisitive dealer group is continuing with its plans to double the size of the FPS warehouse in Sheffield to 100,000 sq ft. But the operation will continue to run as a standalone, limited company supplying only motor factors and engine remanufacturers. On the bodyshop front, SEL-Imperial, which claims to be the UK's largest importer of non-OE crash repair parts, has developed software it claims can lift margins by 10 per cent by listing every item available and generating a report on savings that can be made. better quality In the wake of MG Rover's collapse, Unipart is reminding beleaguered Rover owners of the existence of a chain of Unipart Car Care Centres for parts and servicing. It points to research by Which? magazine which showed that independent garages often offer a better quality service at more competitive rates than franchised dealer networks. Emerging brand Kia has even dipped a toe in the parts club pool. Last year, it ran a trade parts programme in the form of a direct mail campaign tailored to individual dealers' local trade customers, such as MoT stations, bodyshops and independents. “Each dealer mailed around 300 targeted customers with a four-page brochure detailing our product offer and the location of the dealer, together with some brand and general information about Kia,” said a Kia spokeswoman. “There were three mail shots and the programme was supported by around 50-60 per cent of the network. “It was useful in raising awareness of the Kia brand within independent outlets. “However, due to the massive amount of change happening at Kia and its dealers, we are not running the programme this year but may resume it at a later date.” Motaquip, PSA's parts business, is to expand its network of independent motor factors in 2005 by 10 per cent. General manager David Higgins claims Motaquip distributors are in a unique position. “They have a strong, competitively-positioned brand to take to their garage customers, and a quality level which is assured by parent group PSA Peugeot Citroen,' he said. “The strength of our partnership programme forms an important part of network development strategy and, five years from launch, it remains a unique and unrivalled package for the sector,” added Higgins. “This year we have received unprecedented levels of interest which could be attributed to changes in block exemption regulations and I anticipate this trend will continue in 2005.” older vehicles Growing sales have seen both Volkswagen and Audi create trade clubs aimed at independents catering for an increasingly large parc of older vehicles. “The vehicle parc for all our brands is growing at unprecedented levels, particularly for vehicles more than four years old,” said a VW group spokesman. “This has caused us to pay close attention to our parts business, the most significant element of which has been the opening of a new rail-fed distribution facility at Dordon in the Midlands.” The spokesman claimed this had led to an improved service and would enable VW to cope with future expansion. Renault's trade club recently celebrated its one millionth order since its launch in 1999. It now supplies more than 1,100 independents ordering on-line through 86 Renault dealers. “Following the changes to the block exemption laws, the market is now expanding to incorporate an increasing number of players such as wholesalers, authorised repairers and motor factors,” said a spokesman. “We welcome this new situation in the marketplace and see it as a benefit to the customer. Our challenge is to demonstrate our strengths to the customer in this competitive environment.” Brian Taylor, Trend Tracker's director of marketing and business development, concluded: “The independent parts distributors who are going to win are the independent distributors who also end up distributing OE parts. “I think there will be some dramatic changes in parts distribution. The logic is that this is going to happen. “Those still trying to fight the old battles are going to be the losers — those who recognise that these changes will offer a real opportunity are going to be the winners.”