Digital agency for motor factors and parts distributors

Motor factors are the wholesale layer between parts manufacturers and the 23,092 MOT stations and tens of thousands of independent workshops that fit the parts. The nationals set the pace: LKQ Euro Car Parts runs 270-plus UK and Ireland branches serving around 38,000 independent aftermarket customers, and GSF and Alliance Automotive (Parts Alliance) are not far behind on coverage. Regional independents compete through buying groups such as IFA, GROUPAUTO and UAN, on relationships, on the van that arrives in forty minutes, and increasingly on whether the garage can order online at all. The whole aftermarket is worth around £17 billion in GVA and supports 339,000 jobs; the factor sits in the middle of it.

The counter runs on MAM Autocat, the VRM-driven catalogue used by 11,000-plus counter staff, with MAM Autopart or Kerridge K8 as the business system, TecDoc data underneath, HaynesPro to narrow the fitment, and Sage or an ERP for accounts. The problem is that all of that stops at the counter. Most independent factors have a brochure website, no trade login, no branch stock visibility and no way for a garage to order outside opening hours. The nationals have portals with VRM lookup, live stock, account pricing and click-and-collect, and the garage that uses one at night is the garage you lose during the day. Garage-facing marketing is usually a monthly PDF of trade offers.

We build the trade portal the counter would design. VRM lookup returns the vehicle and the TecDoc K-Type; the catalogue shows the articles you stock with fitment criteria, OE cross-references and supersessions; the garage sees its own account price tier, live stock by branch and the next delivery slot; the order lands in Autopart or K8 with credit checked against the ERP. Around that we add branch click-and-collect, van-run scheduling, returns and surcharge handling, and a garage-facing email programme with offers that are actually segmented by what each account buys. For factors who also sell retail, the same catalogue runs a consumer store without a second data set.