February 2020

“We have got to find ways to get costs out of the system and the entire supply chain. We are trying to make it digital, seamless with full transparency so garage can see what is going on.” On the need for garages to specialise, Andy said: “Independent workshops will need to narrow the bandwidth because of all the complexities, so we are going to see dynamics changing in the UK market. We are committed to be a key partner. It will go beyond parts, it will be around the services, technical support, data and training. We recognise that if we don’t do that, there won’t be an independent aftermarket. ADAS and data The growth in ADAS and how the aftermarket needs to gear up for the future brought Dean Lander, Head of Repair Service at Thatcham Research to the stage. In an amusing presentation, he included K.I.T.T from TV series Knight Rider as a textbook example of ADAS in use, and Herbie from The Love Bug as a badly maintained autonomous car. He had a serious point to make: “The machine making the decisions is very complex, and we have to make sure that very car that gets fixed is fixed properly. The independent has the capacity, but the vehicle manufacturer has the tech. If you can collaborate, you can find a FEBRUARY 2020 AFTERMARKET 49 www.aftermarketonline.net Workshops Next up was Hayley Pells, owner of Avia Autos, who was looking at how technology was impacting on workshops themselves. She explained the set-up of the business, including how alongside of the routine, they build aluminium car bodies for pre- war sports cars including Bentleys. “Not many businesses are engaged in something as hardcore as rebuilding hand-built pre-war cars, which is good as it takes us two years to do a shell.” She also explained how she is involved in advising government in Wales on fostering entrepreneurship. “What makes Avia stand out?” asked Hayley. One area, she said, was in staff retention. She said she was a great believer in properly training staff with a view to enabling their careers to flourish elsewhere if they wished, only to find them opting to stay. Some food for thought. Following Hayley, was Euro Car Parts Chief Executive Andy Hamilton, who was discussing how the company was looking to champion the success of the independent garage across the UK. “The aftermarket is constantly evolving” he said. “Digital is already significantly interfering with everything we do in terms of the supply chain and the route to market. Some of the things that are already happening include consolidation in parts supply across Europe, and we obviously have a part to play in that. We are also seeing OEMs expanding. The interesting thing is that despite digital side, the service experience you get at a dealer is not getting better. At the same time, we are seeing the likes of PSA recognising that they want to capture a longer part of the life of the vehicle. “The challenge is having the independent workshop ready not only now, but also anticipating how consumers will behave as we move forward. One of the bigger challenges is not about the car, or the OEM, it is about the driver and what digital is doing to them. “Even though the experience is not getting better, the OEMs and franchised dealers will see more and more vehicles turning up at their doors over the next couple of year. This is because of the complexity of the vehicles, because of diagnostics and data-driven access. We have to think about how we are going to support the independent workshop in the UK. If we don’t do this, as a distributor we won’t have any customers.” Another problem is EVs and hybrids again: “Hybrids have been on our roads for 15 years, but the independent aftermarket does not have the qualified staff or the skill sets to work on these vehicles. By default, hybrids are ending up back with the dealers. 46% of cars turned away from independent workshops was because they could not work on the fault.” On the sector as a whole, he observed: “In the UK, we have three times more independent workshops per square kilometre than Germany, and there are the same number of vehicles. So, a workshop in Germany has three times more customers. Because there are less workshops, there is less supply chain. They are having to be more organised, and 70% of their business is e-commerce trading. They have full GMS systems. They have the technology, because they don’t have a choice. In the UK something has to give. As the supplier, we have to support the garages to provide a great service, or there is going to be less of them, because they won’t continue. “The technician of the future is an auto-electric engineer. Research suggests that 30% of garages will close by 2030. What are we going to do? We have to transition from being a physical parts supplier to being a full-service partner with the garages. Below: Neil Pattemore lays out the challenges