APF Autoparts: original parts at a good price

In a European market that is waiting to see the repair clause for spare parts imposed on all countries of the European Union, original parts have never seemed to have been doing so well. APF Autoparts is proof of this. From a 20 million euros turnover in 2018 to 120 million, which it is certain to reach in 2022, it benefited from a boom which first owes its success to its clever positioning on parts from Japanese brands, its CEO Jürgen Sonck having been a Toyota dealer for a long time. If these parts are best-sellers in terms of volume, the Volkswagen AG brands follow just behind, ahead of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. Stellantis is also a player that is starting to weigh on APF’s business.

Today, even premium brands such as Lamborghini, Maserati, Jaguar and Land Rover entrust it with sections of their parts distribution, sold on order. And APF has not neglected Asia as it carries parts for Chinese manufacturers BYD, Maxus and the now Sino-British MG. The Belgian distributor owes its impressive growth in particular to the desire of many manufacturers of light vehicles and utility vehicles under 3.5 tonnes to delegate the logistics of their body car parts to wholesalers and so avoid storage costs.

In this area, APF has strong arguments, with its subsidiaries in its number two market of the UK, Spain, Lithuania, from where it serves the three Baltic countries, and in the Netherlands, and France, its third market in volume. To support its growth, the company set up its Belgian flagship store in February 2022, located barely fifteen minutes from its previous site and barely thirty minutes from Ghent. In doing so, it went from 2,500 m² to 7,000 m² of space, offices included. Enough to also store parts from OE manufacturers which represent 10% of its sales volume. These include Valeo and Hella foroptics, Nissens and NRF for cooling systems, and Yuasa for batteries.

For glazing they source from OE manufacturer Pilkington as well as from car manufacturers themselves. The breadth and depth of its glass parts offer means it has been supplying Belron, the parent company of the Carglass network, for several years. “It would have been better to have had even more space” says Jürgen Sonck with a smile that betrays his satisfaction at having raised APF to the rank of reliable partner for its distributor and repair shop customers as well as for its manufacturer suppliers. “In 2019, when we signed the order for the new building, we underestimated our growth, we imagined it would be around 80 million euros”, adds Jürgen Sonck. The result is that the current building is almost too small to hold the complete APF stock.

This relatively small space means that the company has rented an additional warehouse in Antwerp since December for stock destined for export, all this activity being centralized in Belgium. Thirty-eight countries are served from Belgium, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, China and also Scandinavia and the Balkans.

“After returning from Automechanika Dubai, we felt that we could double turnover in 2023 if only we could build sufficiently well- structured teams for the export market. The problem remains finding personnel because the sector is suffering from a shortage”, says Jürgen Sonck.

Today, the company has 105 employees in Belgium and 165 in total, but it would need even more to exploit the full potential of the original part market, where it has carved out a position as a European heavyweight. Despite the very high inflation of manufacturers’ body parts in all markets, the situation is more favourable than ever for the development of the parts activity that distributors like APF Autoparts have chosen to make their main business. On the one hand because more and more car brands do not want to handle warehousing. And on the other hand, because the increase in prices mechanically fuels the increase in turnover.

However, the number of accidents remains stable, as confirmed by Jürgen Sonck. “Impacts are less violent, but as the value of the parts increases, turnover is growing strongly.” This includes ADAS, the sensors and cameras that APF also sells as soon as they hit the manufacturers’ catalogue. And the service rate, slightly down compared to the period preceding the Covid-19 pandemic, does not pose any problem. “The service rate in 2020 and 2021 dropped below 90%, but it has since returned to that level. The market now considers such a rate acceptable, whereas 93 or 94% at least was required before 2019 to satisfy the customer” confesses the CEO of APF.