System Allows Consumers to Buy Salvage-Yard Auto Parts from New-Parts Dealers
Joseph “Joey” Woodfin IV seized an opportunity. He noticed how automotive salvage yards, such as his Woodfin Auto Parts business in Chesterfield County, Va., had been looking for ways to sell more used car parts to consumers. Also, national auto-parts retailers wanted to be able to offer different merchandise to keep shoppers coming back. Woodfin decided to merge the needs, creating a budding national business that links auto recyclers with car parts retailers. His new EverDrive LLC serves as a conduit for auto parts retailers to have access to a vast supply of used parts through a network of more than 200 auto recyclers across the country.
Dealership Parts & Service Takes Aim at the Aftermarket
Would you sell parts to your competitor? In all probability, you already do. While your driver delivers aftermarket parts through the OE dealership service department’s front door, OE parts are going out that same dealership’s backdoor to your best installer customers.
Executive Interview with Scott Meyer, President of MEMA
Our latest edition of “Executive Interview” features Scott Meyer, outgoing chairman of the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA). As he concludes his time as chairman of the association, he steps into a new role as interim president of MEMA, which is in the midst of celebrating its 100-year anniversary. Join us as Meyer shares his insights on the anniversary of MEMA’s centennial, and what lies ahead for both MEMA and the entire industry.
Pep Boys Remodels Stores, Adds New Brands and Product Categories
Yesterday, Pep Boys celebrated grand re-openings at five newly remodeled stores in Jacksonville, Fla. The re-openings — which featured special retail and service promotions, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, remote radio broadcasts and a market-wide sweepstakes promotion — are part of a major “retail renewal” initiative that the company has undertaken.
TIA and GE Extend 20-Year Credit Partnership
The Tire Industry Association (TIA) and GE Retail Sales Finance have extended their 20-year private label credit partnership that enables TIA members to offer extended financing to their customers through the CarCareONE credit card network. The program was launched in 1984. The CarCareONE program provides extended financing terms from 30 days to one year, emergency roadside assistance for one year and electronic processing that enables dealers to obtain rapid credit decisions while the customer waits in the store.
DST Asks: Is Your Company Part of a Technology Users’ Group
Scientists can’t actually agree on when mankind first discovered fire. Some think as recently as 100,000 years ago, but others claim evidence of campfires as old as 1.6 million years by carbon-dating them. In any case, whenever fire was discovered, everyone is in agreement that the first thing needed was a users’ group to share knowledge and techniques about this new, mysterious technology. Cavemen and their cavewomen traveled far and wide to assemble and discuss fire and trade new ideas and stories about its benefits. Can’t you just imagine the program agenda for that first Users’ Group? Probably workshops with titles like “Cooked Meat: A Whole New Paradigm” and “Heating Your Cave: Why a Chimney is a Good Idea” and “Stay Awake after Dark with a New Source of Light.”
Auto Components Supplier Set to Quadruple China Sales
World-leading automotive parts and components supplier Robert Bosch GmbH plans to cash in on China’s fast-growing auto sector by quadrupling its sales in the nation by 2012. The company plans to lift its sales to $6 billion by 2012 from last year’s $1.56 billion.
Clevite Launches New Engine Builder Club
Clevite Engine Parts recently launched the Clevite Engine Builder Club, a new, one-of-a-kind club aiming to further the professional careers of engine builders across the country and around the world.
Transpro Names Paul Verdile Senior Product Manager
Transpro has appointed Paul Verdile senior product manager for its Automotive Light Truck Heat Exchanger Business Unit. In this position Verdile will be responsible for all product development and strategic planning functions for product lines that include Ready-Rad radiators and Ready-Aire heater cores and air conditioning condensers. He will report to Layne Gobrogge, Transpro’s vice president of marketing and will be based in New Haven, Conn.
DST Asks:Does Your Multi-Store Business Management System Capture and Consolidate Operating Information?
It’s the American way. Start your own business. Perfect your methods. Hire good people. Grow your customer base. Perfect the idea at one location, then expand by adding new locations that share the same business model. Thousands of successful retail enterprises have started in exactly this way. It’s a fundamental way to apply the principle we all learned in Economics 101 – economies of scale. Business 101 would call it leverage. Good entrepreneurs call it survival!