BBB Industries and Hahn Automotive’s recent collaboration on enhanced inventory modeling and optimization tools to facilitate the availability of the right parts at the right time was awarded the second Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA) Channel Excellence Award presented by Epicor. Kim Nolan, vice president, regional sales, BBB Industries, and Josh Futerman, vice president, administrative services, Hahn Automotive, accepted the award in a virtual ceremony last week at the 2020 AASA Vision Conference.
The AASA Channel Excellence Award was established to both recognize innovation and to encourage collaboration between suppliers and valued channel partners to drive aftermarket growth. Suppliers are innovators and the drivers of new technologies, but greater achievements are possible when suppliers and channel partners develop new products and solutions in a collaborative environment, according to AASA and Epicor.
During her acceptance speech, Nolan said, “I am excited to accept this award on behalf of BBB Industries and our 30-year customer Hahn Automotive, and a special thank you to our category managers Josh McCabe and Patrick Pennington, who worked alongside John Donovan, the store inventory specialist, at Hahn Automotive. Our collaboration delivered real results.”
During his acceptance speech, Futerman said, “I want to thank Himanshu Palsule and Stephen Gannon from Epicor, as well as Chris Gardner and Paul McCarthy from AASA, with presenting Hahn Automotive and BBB Industries with this year’s Channel Excellence Award.”
The BBB Industries / Hahn Automotive project was one of three joint initiatives by automotive aftermarket companies selected as award finalists. The other finalists were: DRiV / Auto-Wares and NGK / XL Parts. Short videos submitted by all the AASA Channel Excellence finalists were played at the 2020 AASA Vision Conference and are posted on the AASA website.
“We created this award to recognize innovation and to encourage collaboration between suppliers and our valued channel partners in order to drive growth together,” said Paul McCarthy, AASA President & COO. “This award encourages the right behaviors in our industry, and we congratulate BBB Industries, Hahn Automotive, and all of our award finalists for driving innovation and collaboration across the value chain.”
“It has been an honor for us to work with AASA on another successful year of the Channel Excellence Award,” said Rod Bayless, Epicor senior director of industry data analytics. “Epicor is proud of its role in encouraging and rewarding collaborative initiatives that benefit participants throughout the aftermarket value chain.”
The 2020 AASA Channel Excellence Award Selection Committee included:
Rod Bayless, Epicor
Brian Cruickshank, University of the Aftermarket
Chris Gardner, AASA
Rick Guirlinger, Schwartz Advisors, LLC
Tony Molla, ASA
Joe Pomaranski, Pomaranski Consulting
