The 8th edition of the NEXUS Business Forum recently took place in Vienna with more than 500 leaders from the global automotive aftermarket. It was the first time in the past two years that such a global physical gathering could be organized.

The forum was divided between hundreds of “speed date” business meetings – to connect the community and accelerate business opportunities – and workshops, which addressed key issues and enabled free discussion between members of the NEXUS community and experts.

NEXUS CEO Gaël Escribe outlined six strategic objectives for the global alliance for the coming eight years, beyond the on-going electric revolution:

• Support new types of partnerships with OEMs,
• Extend the current suppliers’ portfolio from just auto parts to parts and services solutions,
• Launch “active purchasing” by consolidating volumes within the N! community, and initiate local consolidation projects,
• Target 25,000 NEXUS branded workshops in 2025 with an enhanced concept being deployed as from 2022,
• Put people on top of the list by scaling up NEXUS Academy and fully support the collaborative initiative Talents4AA, and
• Reinforce Nexus commitment in sustainability as a transversal concern in all activities & businesses, and a special focus to support the launch of AA Climate Day.

Escribe added, “After two years of COVID crisis, NEXUS is delighted to gather its whole community together. The Business Forum is not only a business meeting, it is the occasion for the aftermarket industry to share best practices, visions, ambitions and to actively prepare the future of our industry. This year the NBF 2022 was also the moment to ACT.”

Escribe was followed by Thierry Mugnier, NEXUS’ chief innovation and finance officer (CFIO), who presented three new collaborative industry initiatives that NEXUS is actively supporting:

·   Talents4AA, in the field of talent acquisition and management,

·   Sparker, the AA market-success services platform ecosystem, and

·   The AA Climate Day, to raise awareness of and commitment to sustainability.

Mugnier said, “Innovation will be a key contributor to overcome the current and future challenges of the Automotive Aftermarket industry.  Sparker aims at structuring innovation in this industry and ensuring success by bringing together all relevant stakeholders on a global scale in the same network, connecting them and operating dedicated services for them.”