By Michael V. Freeze, managing editor, aftermarketNews.com

CHICAGO -- The Aftermarket Financial Symposium in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), featured a series of four breakout sessions on Wednesday that discussed topics from financial implications of industry standards to tax liabilities.

Scott Luckett, vice president, technology standards and solutions for AAIA, led the first of the sessions. Luckett detailed the financial benefits of industry standards such as ACES, PIES and the PARTnership Network.

He explained the liabilities involved in data garthering. For example, he talked about the delays in getting data from suppliers to the distribution channel to the instaler. These delays, Luckett estimated, cost more than $5 billion in sales. In addition, Luckett also warned of a growing OE presence thanks to slow aftermarket data gathering.

On the positive side, Luckett estimated that data cleansing saves $4 for every dollar invested in industry standards, a big savings considering most errors in the data-gathering process cost as much $80 per order to correct.

"There is the potential for lots of savings in our industry. It is essential that we do these things for greater efficiency,” said Luckett.

The second breakout session, Managing the Volatility of Employee Benefits, was a discussion panel led by Thom Jenkins, senior vice president and director for financial firm, Acordia.

The panel spoke about the troubling concerns facing employee benefits costs, including health care and prescription plans.

As stated by one of the members of the panel, Chief Financial Officer Brian Schweigel from Old World Industries, health care cost are the 3rd or 4th largest overall expense for most companies’ profit and loss accounts.

“As employers, we assume some responsibility for the burden of education,” said Schweigel. He further added, in terms of installing a new health plan, “People need to be educated or employees will continue to do unhealthy things, make unhealthy choices.”

Schweigel also mentioned that over the last three years, prescription drugs costs have been growing faster than any other medical expenditure and that employees with chronic problems account for 70 percent of drug costs.

"It is of importance to identify people (with chronic problems), said Schweigel. “It is important for our employees to be healthy.”

The third breakout session featured another panel led by Capstone Financial Group founder Dan Smith, who also spoke earlier at the symposium. The group discussed the details that are put into business valuations from the aftermarket industry perspective. Smith felt the investment climate for the aftermarket industry is extremely positive.

“Never in history has there been so much money available for investment by private equity groups,” said Smith.

With stock market performance underperforming for some investors, many see the aftermarket industry ripe with much opportunity.

“Generally, the industry is growing at a 6 to 9 percent rate each year, despite what the rest of economy is doing,” said Neal Berman, managing director of corporate development of the Harbour Group. “It’s a great market segment to be in. It’s pretty steady.”

The last breakout session was presented by Byron Schneidman and Mark L. Nachbar from American Express Tax and Business Services Inc. Schneidman, who is the national managing director for automotive aftermarket services group, and Nachbar, who is the national managing director for the state and local tax group, both provided ways to reduce tax liabilities and improve cash flow for aftermarket companies. The session covered a wide of range of topics from prepaid expenses to unclaimed property.

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