An Old Continent still on the move!

First observation: while LKQ had previously been a regular player in large transactions, it was much quieter than its competitors. Parts Holding Europe (PHE) and Alliance Automotive Group (AAG) took the lead in consolidation!

And it was on the Iberian Peninsula that the biggest changes took place. After acquiring 100% of Comercial Lapuyade, a franchisee of the Gaudi group (already part of the AAG galaxy) with annual sales of €1.7 million, the European cousin of Genuine Parts Company (GPC) made a big move at the end of July by announcing the acquisition of Recambios Colón, previously part of the Serca group. The distributor has 29 sites between the provinces of Valencia and Alicante and reports €50 million in sales.
For its part, PHE, via AD Parts Intergroup, has acquired a 75% stake in the Catalan family-owned group AD Freco Parts. The bride's dowry includes nine sites and €24 million in sales for 2024. At the end of November, AD Parts Intergroup made another announcement, acquiring Auto Recambios Francisco Cerda (four sites, €6 million in revenue) via AD Viber. Until now, AD Parts/PHE had expanded its network by acquiring majority stakes in entities that were already members, but this time the opportunity arose outside the community. Auto Recambios Cerda, like Recambios Colón, was a member of the Serca group... This will enable AD Parts, in a Spanish market that remained buoyant in Q2 for distribution, to aim even higher than the €1.2 billion in consolidated turnover achieved in 2024!
But at the end of October, a new leader emerged under a new banner: Nexus Iberia, led by a very powerful IDAP-Recalvi tandem. IDAP brings together Serca, AGR (Andel and Grupauto), Aser, Urvi, Holy-Auto, and Autoparts Ibérica. With Recalvi, the combined turnover of the group reaches €1.4 billion! Is this a sufficient countermeasure to curb the market concentration initiated by AAG and PHE?

Autodoc has set up a platform in Belgium in order to play the proximity card with its customers in France, the Benelux, and the border region of Germany. With this 15,000 m² warehouse, the European e-commerce leader says it will be able to process 14,000 orders per day from the outset.
On the group side, AAG Benelux acquired Belgian distributor Smet Auto-onderdelen in June. With its two sites in Flanders, the latter – a former partner of LKQ – joins the PartsPoint network, which has 26 subsidiary sales outlets in Belgium and 91 in the Netherlands, where AAG has also acquired NB Automotive Group, a manufacturer of garage equipment, to expand its “Equipment” division.
For its part, PHE made an internal move with the acquisition of Thijsen Autoparts, previously part of Autodistribution Belgium, by its cousin Doyen Auto.

But it was in Ireland that the group owned by D'Ieteren made its biggest move by acquiring a stake in TOP Parts. This move gave it a grand entrance into a new market, Northern Ireland, with the local distribution leader (21 points of sale and €50 million in revenue). AAG consolidated its already strong position in Great Britain with the acquisition of Autosupplies, a distributor based in Chesterfield.
LKQ, for its part, has made progress in the circular economy: in the summer, the American company announced the creation of a joint venture in the United Kingdom with a recycler, a subsidiary of the IAA group (four sites, 27,000 vehicles processed annually), called LKQ Synetic. This is a new “PIEC” asset up its sleeve, following the acquisitions of Atraco in Sweden in 2018 and the Rhenoy Group in the Netherlands in 2023.