Repco has bought Rare Spares.

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Even dealerships doing the same thing - you can see it in one of the latest MCM clips where they try buy genuine parts from a Honda dealership but the guy won't do anything without a VIN.

What is wrong with that?

Dad has been in spares for 30+ years and always uses the VIN. Only way to be 100% accurate is to use the VIN.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Nikked

What is wrong with that?

Dad has been in spares for 30+ years and always uses the VIN. Only way to be 100% accurate is to use the VIN.

Because they are doing an engine conversion from one car into another so the VIN is useless but they need parts for the conversion engine and from various other Civics.

If you are chasing parts for a factory car then yes VIN is perfectly fine - but you should still be able to determine information by knowing what engines are in what cars and work backwards.

[xb74_black]

Ive got cars with engines not meant for them, try convincing pimple popper at repco that there's a 351w in the xf and you need part x.


Then ask for a part to suit a 74 Leyland thats identical to a part from any of the big 3 from the same era.



VIN is one tool, not the best.

Originally Posted by Nikked

What is wrong with that?

Dad has been in spares for 30+ years and always uses the VIN. Only way to be 100% accurate is to use the VIN.

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

They made the decision a while back to invest more in cataloguing and pay less on wages - so what they do is no more ex auto tradies in parts roles anymore and more pimply faced kids on Maccas money who go 'year make and model' and read from the screen - SCA was the first that went down this path but Repco is following big time, I deal with SCA/Repco/Burson and their other lesser known brands on a daily basis.

Even dealerships doing the same thing - you can see it in one of the latest MCM clips where they try buy genuine parts from a Honda dealership but the guy won't do anything without a VIN.

If the search tool they use won't do anything without a VIN then you go to carsales, find a car for sale that your customer is chasing parts for, use the rego search function of your local road authority to get the VIN and then use that to satisfy the computer but Mr Honda spare parts guy obviously can't think outside the box

The whole industry is ****ed, its being consolidated between two huge corporate groups, its also losing all its experienced people who are being replaced with pimply teenage kids which is causing downward pressure on wages, I'm trying to get out.

The other side of it that you might not see from a consumer perspective is the companies supplying these monsters end up with dealing an oligopsony which is a whole other issue.

when SuperCheap starting getting traction is when I saw a change in Repco, they started copying what SuperCheap was doing

[Citroënbender]

Franco, what’s the ideal (goal) timeframe for responding to an initial customer email re product/service in your side of the business? What about for the GPC/Bapcor type conglomerates?

Just curious, no agenda as such.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

when SuperCheap starting getting traction is when I saw a change in Repco, they started copying what SuperCheap was doing

For the DIY crowd whose buying at retail, SCA are fantastic, great stock levels, extended trading hours, open 7 days, fantastic.

Perfect retail auto company.

Repco seems to be transitioning to retail, NAPA is now the more trade focused part of GPC Asia Pacific and is a one stop shop - Ashdown-Ingram, R&E Auto Parts, RDA etc all in one shop front, 30,000+ part numbers on the shelf.

Where Burson shine from a trade perspective is 4x freight runs a day out regional or unlimited if you're in the same suburb or close by, online ordering capability you don't even have to touch a phone.

I imagine NAPA will be similar to what Repco used to be with the drivers and trade focus.

[Trevor 57]

I am regional and in almost every case it is overnight if they don't have something

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Franco, what’s the ideal (goal) timeframe for responding to an initial customer email re product/service in your side of the business? What about for the GPC/Bapcor type conglomerates?

Just curious, no agenda as such.

Complicated response on this one, I'll detail it tonight.

[Bossxr8]

Nothing will change, except the prices will go up, so they can Rip Every Poor C*** Off. Repco's pricing is just terrible. Avoid at all costs.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Franco, what’s the ideal (goal) timeframe for responding to an initial customer email re product/service in your side of the business? What about for the GPC/Bapcor type conglomerates?

Just curious, no agenda as such.

Depends on who you are and where you sit on the chain, its not necessarily by how much you spend either, it depends on customer expectation within where you fit in the industry.

Ideally there should be enough information available for you to decide what you need on a website so you don't actually need to make an enquiry for further information - have a look at a website like EFI Hardware, for someone chasing that kind of product that they sell, it generally has everything you need to know.

If not that's when the emails (or phone calls) start and you end up involving costly humans (who should provide something you might have read in a history book once, known as 'customer service')

A lot of these people these days know what they want, they just need some information to make their final decision, they shouldn't have to call to determine that.

Someone like an OEM who spends 7 figures is very demanding on what information they want to the nth degree and is very driven by process and procedures, its a huge system and you have to be within those confines, but they're not expecting responses instantly, they can wait before they get responses to their questions and things move its way through.

Aftermarket industry where the end user has someones car on the hoist, spends **** all in the grand scheme of things compared to an OEM but requires instant responses and once they commit they want their goods within 2 hours.

If you think about it they've got someones car who has dropped it off in the morning, then they need to get it on a hoist, find out whats wrong, once they've done that they need to order what they need to fix it, so they'll call a reseller, who calls a wholesale distributor/manufacturer then they need to get the part back down the chain to get the car sorted and off the hoist back to their customer so you can have your car back at the end of the day.

By nature the industry is VERY demanding from a service perspective, you need to have what they want on the shelf and you need to be roughly in the ball park on pricing - this is driven by harvesting customers data.

With me the goal is 15 minutes from someones email arriving to me sending a response, but usually within an hour is acceptable inside business hours, that's not a KPI thats just how I like things done, depends on available resources though so of course there's outliers where things take longer than they should.

I try encourage people to email rather than call, its like my 'to do' list and its the thing that has absolute priority for a customer response, live and die by email and because its in writing, it protects you from me as well

I'm not always at my desk due to the nature of everything I do, so if you call me, I'm not at my desk, there's a message in my inbox to call you back (or a post it note on one of my screens), so I call you back then you're not available because you're not at your desk or dealing with something else and we play phone hockey until we catch each other - its a waste of time.

Also if you talk to me on the phone you're only talking to me, if you email not only its me with eyes over it but my team and a couple of others, its very often that someone is conversing with one of the others but I see it I can also help or intercept, so you'll get a faster response because there's just more people with eyes over something.

The parts distributors in this thread - most have a phone culture where they'd rather you call them and they're ****ing horrible on the email, you're flat out even getting an email signature from them in their response or even their name.

Then we've read horror experiences in here from 'click and collect' from some of these places, they're not really coping with a change to the phone mentality, they're driving people to the phone call, then they need 5 blokes on the counter and you end up on hold.

Regardless of what I prefer, you can still call me, walk into my office or send smoke signals and I'll help you at the best of my ability - customer service

[Franco Cozzo]

Something else I noticed was there was a few amalgamations of parts companies that turned into a different brand in one store location.

Then the most experienced bloke left for a competitor because I quote 'I didn't want to be standing there selling seat covers to someone'.

Given its a huge corporate they don't care about the ones and twos going, they did some abhorrent **** to their staff during Melbourne COVID stage 4, my favorite was one of the branches lost 6 of their experienced blokes by standing them down, then when they needed staff again, all 6 refused to go back and the only had two people holding the fort down for months

It'll get to the point where they start losing business and the finance people go well we're just not worth it and they don't actually dig deeper than the numbers on paper, cultural problem thats losing customers.

[Trevor 57]

Speaking of conglomerations, not many people are aware that there is a duopoly of insurance companies in Australia

Suncorp & IAG - between them they own most of the insurance brands in Australia

IAG:

• NRMA insurance
• SGIO
• SGIC
• CGU
• Swann
• WFI
• Lumley

Suncorp:

• AAMI
• GIO
• Bingle
• APIA
• Shannons
• Terri Scheer
• CIL
• Vero
• Essentials

and between them they underwrite heaps of others - next time an unusual brand comes up on TV advertising, look at the fine print at the bottom for for underwrites them for example:

1. Coles Insurance is underwritten by IAG, whereas:
2. Woolworths Insurance is underwritten by Hollards (outside the duopoly, but a huge local insurer)

Elders is underwritten by QBE. QGE is outside the duopoly as is Allianz - I deal mostly with those 2 companies

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

Speaking of conglomerations, not many people are aware that there is a duopoly of insurance companies in Australia

Suncorp & IAG - between them they own most of the insurance brands in Australia

IAG:

• NRMA insurance
• SGIO
• SGIC
• CGU
• Swann
• WFI
• Lumley

Suncorp:

• AAMI
• GIO
• Bingle
• APIA
• Shannons
• Terri Scheer
• CIL
• Vero
• Essentials

and between them they underwrite heaps of others - next time an unusual brand comes up on TV advertising, look at the fine print at the bottom for for underwrites them for example:

1. Coles Insurance is underwritten by IAG, whereas:
2. Woolworths Insurance is underwritten by Hollards (outside the duopoly, but a huge local insurer)

Elders is underwritten by QBE. QGE is outside the duopoly as is Allianz - I deal mostly with those 2 companies

No matter what name they stick up on the door, its all ultimately thanks to them we have stupid OHandS laws, added costs of buying stuff, driving a car/truck, creatively forcing nanny states and the demise of so many good small businesses.
Ar**holes the lot of them imo.

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

No matter what name they stick up on the door, its all ultimately thanks to them we have stupid OHandS laws, added costs of buying stuff, driving a car/truck, creatively forcing nanny states and the demise of so many good small businesses.
Ar**holes the lot of them imo.

I have worked full time in OHS since 2000, the OHS laws are simple, it is what individual businesses do interpreting the law into business, so if you have an issue with OHS processes blame, businesses, unions but don't blame the law

[Tassie f100]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

I have worked full time in OHS since 2000, the OHS laws are simple, it is what individual businesses do interpreting the law into business, so if you have an issue with OHS processes blame, businesses, unions but don't blame the law

Maybe we shouldn’t blame the law after it has been made,but who do we blame for making some of these stupid laws,which quite often seem to blame everyone except the idiot who won’t take responsibility for their own actions,such as blaming someone else when they are too stupid to see a simple trip hazard

[Trevor 57]

There are about 16 'people' who have responsibility under OHS law, from bosses to workers to people who design, manufacture and install plant and substances, includin WorkSafe and its inspectors.

Australian law is unique in that it place responsibility on bosses to provide a safe workplace, it is up to individual businesses how they do that, that is why there is such a variation between workplaces.

When it goes pear shaped it is up to the businesses to justify their decisions

[hawke]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

Speaking of conglomerations, not many people are aware that there is a duopoly of insurance companies in Australia

Suncorp & IAG - between them they own most of the insurance brands in Australia

IAG:

• NRMA insurance
• SGIO
• SGIC
• CGU
• Swann
• WFI
• Lumley

Suncorp:

• AAMI
• GIO
• Bingle
• APIA
• Shannons
• Terri Scheer
• CIL
• Vero
• Essentials

and between them they underwrite heaps of others - next time an unusual brand comes up on TV advertising, look at the fine print at the bottom for for underwrites them for example:

1. Coles Insurance is underwritten by IAG, whereas:
2. Woolworths Insurance is underwritten by Hollards (outside the duopoly, but a huge local insurer)

Elders is underwritten by QBE. QGE is outside the duopoly as is Allianz - I deal mostly with those 2 companies

Trevor, I spent some time as the Legal and Compliance Manager for one of those holding companies mentioned. Nearly all of the Business’s above are seperate corporate entities, with their own Boards and Independent directors. I have never seen an example of one company doing a favour for another. Indeed, most seem to hate the others in the group, and will do things just to spite them.

Remember, remuneration and bonus structures are driven from the performance of the subsidiary company.

In some cases, there can be some advantages when small companies join a large corporate. Often access to larger and better reinsurance arrangements can provide better stability and security for customers.

It’s not all bad news when you deal with some of these large corporates.

The point you make about looking at the insurer is a valid one. If the insurer is registered in Australia, then it is probably OK, if a Foreign insurer - excepting Lloyds - be very careful.

Keep in mind that Allianz is just a subsidiary of probably the largest insurer in the World.

[Trevor 57]

So, who owns Allianz? The web tells me no one owns them, but they own others, or have gobbled up others

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

So, who owns Allianz? The web tells me no one owns them, but they own others, or have gobbled up others

I think he meant to say Allianz Australia.

[aussiblue]

Allianz Australia is the subsidiary of a German company (the parent company, Allianz SE, is headquartered in Munich, Germany) and many forget Allianz was a major supporter of the Nazi movement with Hitler's first cabinet including the head of Allianz as a cabinet member. On June 30, 1933, Kurt Schmitt, Allianz Director-General, was appointed Economics Ministers for the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allianz

n 1993 Henning Schulte-Noelle commissioned a new Archive for Corporate History, becoming the first Allianz CEO to address the company's activities during the Third Reich. In 1997 Schulte-Noelle asked Gerald Feldman, historian from the University of California-Berkeley, if he would undertake a larger research project on Allianz's past involvement with the Third Reich.[85] After research began, Jewish World War II survivors and their descendants took Allianz and other European insurance companies to court, accusing them of unpaid insurance policies.[86] Allianz and four other insurers supported the creation of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC).[87]

Furthermore, Allianz became a founding member of the German Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future".[88] Feldman published the comprehensive results of his research in September 2001. Based on these results Allianz established an exhibition in the Archive for Corporate History and on the Internet.[89] The research concluded that Allianz, as an organization and through its corporate officers, voluntarily partnered with the Nazi Regime and the Third Reich, starting as early as the early 1930s and continuing all the way through to the collapse of the Third Reich.[90]

Feldman summarized his findings stating: "It was just one more piece of business in the Third Reich, but it demonstrated that such pieces on any large scale made contact at some point with all that is represented by the name 'Auschwitz'– from slave labor to extermination – virtually inescapable."[91]

Major General Gustav Lombard, the former commander of the Waffen-SS’ 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer, worked for Allianz in Munich after the war's end.

[Trevor 57]

So Allianz owns Allianz

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

I think he meant to say Allianz Australia.

I never said Allianz Australia anywhere, so I fail to see the relevance

[Qld-RTV]

Buggered if I know why Repco is being dragged into this, GPC's vision for Repco is as a direct competitor to Supercheap, a long way from Repco's trade based origin

[FTE217]

Originally Posted by Qld-RTV

Buggered if I know why Repco is being dragged into this, GPC's vision for Repco is as a direct competitor to Supercheap, a long way from Repco's trade based origin

That same train of thought was also pre GPC ownership.
As SCA was growing and growing and gaining real estate footprint Repco were trying to go head to head with them, buying next door or close enough to a SCA store and changing their Trade DNA to Retail.
It failed back then.
GPC have the resource for the long term and hence NAPA introduced.
NAPA carries many brands that are not in Repco as a point of diff.
Lets see where they end up down the track for at this stage SCA is miles in front of them Retail wise and management wise imo.

Like Franco I am also in the Aftermarket, for some 30+ yrs.
Apart from the duopoly occuring for some time and the aquasitions as he mentions the knock off effect has been the huge loss of "knowledgable" parts interpreters - you know many of the "boomers" have decided to GTFO for your dealing with head office grads and in some case's ex OE young uns who have NO clue about this game but what the software system tells them and spread sheets.
This has driven many in the game I have come to know to leave for its all becoming too hard - HQ don't listen to them.
Hence this is also the transition of the tech/software taking over daily runnings of a company/branch - those knowledgable blokes used to be able to get in the system and make a correction to importantly get the product they need for the customer/tradie etcetc.....
Sad and as they say times change, in some case's for the worse.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by FTE217

That same train of thought was also pre GPC ownership.
As SCA was growing and growing and gaining real estate footprint Repco were trying to go head to head with them, buying next door or close enough to a SCA store and changing their Trade DNA to Retail.
It failed back then.
GPC have the resource for the long term and hence NAPA introduced.
NAPA carries many brands that are not in Repco as a point of diff.
Lets see where they end up down the track for at this stage SCA is miles in front of them Retail wise and management wise imo.

Like Franco I am also in the Aftermarket, for some 30+ yrs.
Apart from the duopoly occuring for some time and the aquasitions as he mentions the knock off effect has been the huge loss of "knowledgable" parts interpreters - you know many of the "boomers" have decided to GTFO for your dealing with head office grads and in some case's ex OE young uns who have NO clue about this game but what the software system tells them and spread sheets.
This has driven many in the game I have come to know to leave for its all becoming too hard - HQ don't listen to them.
Hence this is also the transition of the tech/software taking over daily runnings of a company/branch - those knowledgable blokes used to be able to get in the system and make a correction to importantly get the product they need for the customer/tradie etcetc.....
Sad and as they say times change, in some case's for the worse.

Usually the career path for aftermarket is you started off on the tools, went into spare parts then up to category management.

Someone who started out on the floor as an auto tradie then moved into spare parts has a very good grounding as a parts interpreter for obvious reasons, the people worth their weight in gold are ones who can provide viable alternatives that aren't what the screen tells you.

It's a skill that's gained through experience with having that understanding of how things with wheels work.

It's a skill valued by other auto tradespeople - but it's not valued by society. It just allows you to 'see' and consider things that someone without that grounding may not even realise.

The problem is these days if you're in head office in the upper echelon of spare parts, the guys who started off on the workshop floor are looked upon as leppers. They now no longer make it from the workshop floor, to the spare parts desk then eventually into head office as a category manager where you start getting decent money.

They're struggling to get to the spare parts desk because the Maccas money kids are driving wages down in the industry.

Category managers today are mostly filled by someone who has no idea or passion about automotive and they just see SKUs on a spreadsheet, they don't know that DB1473 on their list is for a Falcon so we shouldn't run out of those because it undermines confidence in our program from a sales perspective.

Hey there's only a few thousand MG3s on the road at the moment - your opportunity is to start the ball rolling on replacement parts now, so in three years time you have the parts on the shelf in the areas these MG3s are in.

You can see how parts are ranged that they'll go on things like vehicle on road data but completely miss an upcoming opportunity, they're using lag measures like demand, the problem with that is you're always a step behind and then you catch up when the demand falls off and you're overstocked.

Today I've got sales enquiries about something because I'm literally the only person in the country with these parts on the shelf for cars that are under 3 years old, or something like various exotic cars, it gets you that phone call then that customer goes wow they had those, let's try them on everything else too.

I've got feet in both OEM and aftermarket and I've also got feet in category management but I'm in the transition period on the way up the ladder.

[FTE217]

yep, thats how many started back in the day, from the ground up.
Thats how you knew/know your job, practical to theory.
As we know Apprenticships have gone backwards, youth from 20yrs ago started to want more, hands on wasn't good enough, Uni Uni Uni !
The other point is our Industry wages suck !
Catergry Manager wages suck imo.
So why stay in it but for the passion you had long ago.
Inventory is run by the software as I mentioned, not by the nouse of a Manager who knows whats happening at fitment levels, why did they know ? field Reps.
Reps now are a PIA to the game, Resellers can't see the point seeing them for they see everything online, whats SOH each DC and just order through the mouse.
So then you have this young Catergry Manager at the DC's/HQ's who has no background knowledge as you mention but his excell spread sheets LOL.....effning useless.

Your second last para is nothing new, a company you know called Wesfil Filters owner is a close friend for 30yrs.
Why did he become Rycos thorn in the backside they ended up buying him, first to market with any new model released in our market.
Resellers had no choice but to buy from him, for typical big OE Ryco as they were typically have countless meetings, oh when do we look into releasing NPI's LOL....Cooper smokes em to this day.

Good luck to you in the game Franco, I'd sooner be working in a well run Privately owned company than a large corporate but I degress, I've been around long time.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by FTE217

yep, thats how many started back in the day, from the ground up.
Thats how you knew/know your job, practical to theory.
As we know Apprenticships have gone backwards, youth from 20yrs ago started to want more, hands on wasn't good enough, Uni Uni Uni !
The other point is our Industry wages suck !
Catergry Manager wages suck imo.
So why stay in it but for the passion you had long ago.
Inventory is run by the software as I mentioned, not by the nouse of a Manager who knows whats happening at fitment levels, why did they know ? field Reps.
Reps now are a PIA to the game, Resellers can't see the point seeing them for they see everything online, whats SOH each DC and just order through the mouse.
So then you have this young Catergry Manager at the DC's/HQ's who has no background knowledge as you mention but his excell spread sheets LOL.....effning useless.

Your second last para is nothing new, a company you know called Wesfil Filters owner is a close friend for 30yrs.
Why did he become Rycos thorn in the backside they ended up buying him, first to market with any new model released in our market.
Resellers had no choice but to buy from him, for typical big OE Ryco as they were typically have countless meetings, oh when do we look into releasing NPI's LOL....Cooper smokes em to this day.

Good luck to you in the game Franco, I'd sooner be working in a well run Privately owned company than a large corporate but I degress, I've been around long time.

Too right the wages are junk across the entire industry, the shop that looks after our cars can't get staff because they pay less than I get driving a desk in a climate controlled office. They can't get any apprentices through the door and I don't blame these kids, I wouldn't do it again that's for sure, go do a construction trade.

I've had customers try and poach me to go back to the tools but they're offering SFA.

Same with a local mechanical shop as well

The repair industry around Melbourne were relying on 457 visas but global pandemic comes along and the supply of cheap visas dried up.

Been on the skills shortage list for a decade and the wages haven't done much improving in that time but house prices certainly have.

My time in the game is coming to an end bud - because I'm trying to buy property.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

My time in the game is coming to an end bud - because I'm trying to buy property.

Crown Casino?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Crown Casino?

No, but close by

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Too right the wages are junk across the entire industry, the shop that looks after our cars can't get staff because they pay less than I get driving a desk in a climate controlled office. They can't get any apprentices through the door and I don't blame these kids, I wouldn't do it again that's for sure, go do a construction trade.

I've had customers try and poach me to go back to the tools but they're offering SFA.

Same with a local mechanical shop as well

The repair industry around Melbourne were relying on 457 visas but global pandemic comes along and the supply of cheap visas dried up.

Been on the skills shortage list for a decade and the wages haven't done much improving in that time but house prices certainly have.

My time in the game is coming to an end bud - because I'm trying to buy property.

It's so stupid they can't get workers, but aren't prepared to pay them a decent wage to attract them. And they probably wonder why no one will work for them