By Amy Antenora

The Week in Review offers a snapshot of the most highly read stories of the week as seen on aftermarketNews. To access the complete stories, simply click on the highlighted links. If you missed reading one of our daily news emails, just click on the link that says "News Archives" at the bottom of the page to begin catching up on the latest industry news.

The top news item in this week’s round-up of most viewed articles features our exclusive Executive Interview with Dan Freeman, APA President and CEO. In the interview, Freeman reveals his thoughts on consolidation within the distribution segment, and talks about some of the key issues APA members are dealing with today.

Another highly read news item this week was our summary of a new report from Grant Thorton, which shows that as many as one-third of automotive suppliers in North America are at risk of bankruptcy. Lower industry volumes and the massive decline in truck and SUV sales are to blame, according to the Summer 2008 Automotive Industry Review prepared by Grant Thornton Corporate Advisory and Restructuring Services. And, as if on cue, this week another parts supplier – Intermet – announced that is filing for bankruptcy.

While these are tough times for the automotive industry, there are a few bright spots — telematics among them. A recent study on telematics conducted by Derek Kaufman and his company C3 Network, on behalf of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), shows that there are currently approximately 280 million cars on the road that could use telematics updates. Our article, “Telematics: Aftermarket Threat or Opportunity?” takes a closer look at what’s around the bend.

Readers of aftermarketNews also showed a high interest in current financial matters at Delphi Corp. The Troy, Mich.-based parts supplier announced its second quarter 2008 financial results this week, including revenues of $5.2 billion, and a net loss of $551 million. Revenue for the quarter was down from $6 billion in the second quarter of 2007. Revenue decline was driven primarily by a 28 percent decrease in GM North America (GMNA) production volume, which included the impact of a work stoppage at a Tier 1 supplier to GMNA and Delphi’s ongoing divestiture of non-core businesses that primarily supplied GMNA.

Rounding out our top news stories this week are two major announcements from Quebec’s Uni-Select. First, Uni-Select announced that it has sold four corporate stores in the Alma, Lac St-Jean region in the province of Quebec. The four stores have been acquired by Robert Claveau and Jean-Francois Claveau and as they complete this transaction, they will change buying groups and sign a long-term supply agreement with Uni-Select.

Additionally, in the U.S., Uni-Select has just signed an agreement to acquire the Mid-Atlantic operations of Parts Depot, which will add nine regional parts distribution warehouses and 67 parts stores located in Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, to its total store count. Parts Depot will retain its Florida-based warehouse and store operations.

To view all of the news from the past week, simply click here to view our News Archives.