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, click on any of the dates listed at the bottom of the page to begin catching up on the latest industry news.
Whether it’s the U.S. economy in general or a particular business sector, Americans are eager to hear some good news. And, the annual Auto Executive Survey by KPMG LLC finally gives us some. The survey shows that 26 percent of executives interviewed expect global automotive profits to rise in the next five years. Based on interviews late last year with 113 senior executives at vehicle manufacturers and suppliers worldwide, the survey found executives much more confident than in the recent past about the outlook for the near term.
Also among the articles of most interest to aftermarketNews readers this week was the announcement that Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) will institute a 4 percent price increase across the board to its lead-acid battery customers. According JCI Power Solutions President Alex Molinaroli, the price increase is the result of unusual increases in the price of raw materials and other costs associated with production and recycling over the past year but not directly related to lead costs.
Babcox Group Publisher Jon Owens takes a stab at a particular hot button issue in his most recent Publisher’s Perspective column. In this highly read column titled “Let’s Make a Deal,” Owens proposes that the entire industry can work together to improve data management processes and completely abolish paper catalogs by the end of Jan. 1, 2009.
The preliminary fourth quarter results from O’Reilly Automotive also made it into the list of the top five stories on AMN this week. O’Reilly announced that comparable store sales results for the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 2007 (for stores open at least one year) increased 2.1 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, versus a 2.1 percent and 3.3 percent respective increase in the prior year.
Rounding out our list of top stories for the week is the introduction of National Pronto Association’s first international shareholder. On Jan. 1, Pronto welcomed AOCSA SA DE CV of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. AOCSA more than 1,000 jobbers in Mexico.
To view all of the news from the past week, simply click on the link for each corresponding day:
