VIPAR Heavy Duty’s Product Advisory Councils recently marked their five-year anniversaries performing business as usual – with “quarterly meetings discussing charting and planning the network’s success in the consistently dynamic and complex heavy-duty aftermarket,” VIPAR said.

VIPAR Heavy Duty maintains three Product Advisory Councils – one for each North American country – to refine and develop new supplier programs and optimize communication within its network of parts distributors and manufacturers. Each Product Advisory Council is comprised of VIPAR Heavy Duty stockholders selected by location, size and market type. The quarterly touchpoints are held with the company’s program management team.

“The Product Advisory Councils are instrumental in guiding our global strategy. They help us monitor and plan for conditions by keeping ears close to the ground with insights from distributors on their local regions,” said Larry Griffin, vice president of program management for VIPAR Heavy Duty. “There are market nuances that can be very specific to a region or territory, as well as larger challenges and opportunities that can impact all of North America. Regardless of scale, the Product Advisory Councils keep us ahead of the curve for emerging trends and conditions.”

Along those lines, Griffin added topics can include product demand, supplier program performance and expansion, supply chains, logistics, cross-border trade and currency exchange rates. “While it can be a wide range of subjects, the mission – as it has been for five years – is really about helping each other bring the greatest value to our distributors and their end-user customers,” he said.

The next Product Advisory Council meetings will be held during the company’s annual IMPACT Conference, Oct. 15-20 in Marco Island, Florida.