By Michael V. Freeze, Managing Editor, aftermarketNews.com
This edition of ATI asks: For a variety of reasons, the late summer/early fall timeframe is among the busiest times for many companies in the aftermarket. Is this true for your company? To what do you attribute the extra workload? How does your company internally prepare for these times?
Kevin Judge, V.P. Sales & Marketing – Brenton Productions, Inc – Swansea, MA
The business work does increase for our company in the second half for two reasons. One, you are trying to at least get even against your plan for the year, because you are probably 5 to 10 percent behind plan for the year. Secondly, there’s the pressure to have something new, exciting and innovative for your company to market and sell at the upcoming AAPEX/SEMA show. Our company begins by advance planning in late May and early June. This time frame provides us an opportunity to evaluate what we have accomplished or not accomplished for the first half of the year and what we must do to meet or surpass our objective for the balance of the year. This time frame also provides us “adequate” time to design new products and programs for the upcoming year. We will have had customer focus groups, test new packaging, review ad concepts, R&D products, redesign our booth to reflect our new strategy, realign our sales organization and order proper shirt sizes for those manning the booth at the show. The bottom line for preparing our team for these times is to keeping asking each other: “How can I make it better?” and “Is this what the customer wants?”
Bob Merrill, Owner – Horsepower Auto Care – Windham, ME
Our busiest time would be from September to November with most cars preparing for the winter. (Last year) We had some tough winter over here. We get into the tire issues in this area, where others don’t have to worry about that sort of thing. In the summertime, it isn’t much of an issue. If someone breaks down, they call somebody and wait until someone picks them up. In the winter, it’s not that easy. If you’re not prepared up here, it’s pretty much a disaster. We try to do the best we can for our customers and make sure they are really ready to go for the winter. Generally, most of our customers are year-round customers and work flows pretty evenly. Like any shop, you’ll have days in which there is some slack and then there are days you’d like to have three more people working. You can never hit that happy medium because it never seems to workout that way.
Tom Ham, Owner – Ham’s Automotive, Inc – Grand Rapids, MI
Generally, it’s the Summer (June and July), but that of late has been pretty erratic. (As for the busy time), it might be changing.
For our busy time, we usually have part-time/apprentice help. They usually perform the simple things, like oil changes. It leaves our more-experienced technicians free to do the bigger, more complex repairs.
Summary by Michael V. Freeze, Managing Editor aftermarketNews:
For most people, every workday is a busy day. And in this industry, like any other, there are usually two kinds of busy: planning ahead and catching up; Sometimes, it’s a combination of both.
During this time of the year, on the administrative level, people are looking over the yearly plan to make adjustments to make their goals. In the aftermarket, the pressure slowly mounts in anticipation for this year’s AAPEX show in Las Vegas.
In the field, among the jobbers and techs, it’s an everyday battle of supply and demand. And let’s not forget the outside salesperson visits and the promotional programs sprinkled in-between the workday.
But if there is the busy time of the year for the automotive industry, it could arguably be the late summer/early fall timeframe. Perhaps that’s one reason the Car Care Council has brought back October as Fall Car Care Month. During that time, motorists are involved with school, sports and preparing for the winter.
Overall, from any level, busy is as busy does. From the year-round work from planning to execution, this is probably the time of the year when many shift from fourth gear to fifth.
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