April 2020

N ow a well-known brand with the professional mechanic, 10 years ago, JLM Lubricants was a fledgling idea in the mind of its founder, Gilbert Groot. In this exclusive interview with Aftermarket he shares a few stand out moments. “I started JLM in 2010 out of frustration with a brand we were representing at the time. They didn’t provide marketing or sales support and new product development was not on their radar. We knew we could do better with our strong European network of direct customers – professional motor mechanics. We had an immediate hit with our Valve Saver Fluid which is still a bestseller today. But experience taught us that we had to look beyond our direct customers to find distributors like Kalimex, our UK distributor and one of the first we signed up. With our second product, a DPF Cleaner we hit the jackpot with demand and endorsement by the trade. Our product development criteria were quality, innovation and problem solving – three things we live by today. So, within the first three years of launching JLM Lubricants we had a presence in 60 countries. However it was not all plain sailing. The lack of sales in some territories relative to the support we had to provide to hit the magic numbers made this meteoric rise unsustainable.” Pulling the plug on South East Asia “Bangkok is the automotive hub of South East Asia and when we launched there we experienced a huge demand. However, the regulations and the paperwork were so onerous that it was taking up to six weeks for a shipment to reach Bangkok from our manufacturing hub in The Netherlands. Chemicals were classed as dangerous goods and this caused the delays. As a small growing brand, we couldn’t sustain the costs or the time lags so we pulled out. But my philosophy is if you don’t try you don’t know. Business card vote of confidence “A real stand out moment that showed me we were on the road to success happened when I attended a sales conference in Tokyo in 2016. JLM distributors attended from all the provinces, many travelling for several hours. At the meet and greet which is very formal in Japan, each distributor lined up to introduce himself and present his business card. On every card was the JLM logo. It was a small but significant thing for me because it was a massive vote of confidence. These distributors loved JLM and our products so much they wanted to demonstrate this on their business cards. The man called Darling Explaining how Darren Darling, founder of The DPF Doctor Network became a JLM brand ambassador, Gilbert observed: “Darren came on our radar in 2014. He was using our Diesel Particulate Filter Cleaner and other JLM products exclusively long before we connected. He sent an email which led to a meeting. I knew when I met him that he would be the perfect ambassador for JLM because he rated our products so highly and was a highly rated mechanic too, especially with his DPF knowledge. I wanted to share his knowhow and enthusiasm with our distributors and with the professional trade because our products are designed for the trade. In 2017 he came on board as a brand 34 AFTERMARKET APRIL 2020 TECHNICAL www.aftermarketonline.net JLM LUBRICANTS - THE PERFECT 10 JLM Lubricants celebrates its 10th anniversary with a look back at where it has been, and a look forward at where it is heading Above: Gilbert Groot

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