During an AAPEX breakfast Tuesday morning, the National Pronto Association and Autodistribution International (ADI) repeated their commitment to each other in a joint venture agreement called 1Parts, which was announced Sept. 17 during Automechanika Frankfurt.
This morning’s breakfast meeting was the North American version of that announcement as about 200 Pronto members and employees gathered to hear Bill Maggs, president and CEO of Pronto, and Omer Wesemael, managing director of ADI, discuss how the two organizations make excellent strategic partners.
“Distribution is a challenging environment and we want to do it with a global vision,” Maggs said. “The automakers are building on global platforms and the technology to achieve this improves daily.
“Pronto is very strong in North America so we needed to find external growth through the global markets. ADI is Europe’s market leader in parts distribution and their strategy matches ours.”
The aim of the shareholders of 1Parts is to raise benefits and advantages for all 1Parts stakeholders, on both the trade and industry side, in key domains such as supplier management and brand strategy, marketing support, data sharing, technical support to installers – and to identify further common domains.
1Parts was designed to be a global organization with members all over the world who share the same global strategy and vision.
Wesemael said 1Parts will take independent distribution to global level, help stop brand erosion and increase margins for distributors by focusing on premium brands with OE quality.
Pronto is a North American organization headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, consisting of 93 shareholder owners. Pronto was formed in 1979 and is a leading Program Distribution group with over $2.5 billion US in sales (1.9 billion Euro), with a focus on marketing, technology, and buying. Pronto members distribute name brand, OE, and Pronto exclusive brand products. The Pronto network is present in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Puerto Rico.
ADI, founded in 1970, is a leading automotive aftermarket player with headquarters in Kortenberg, Belgium. Its nearly 600 AD distributors deliver parts, products, tools and equipment to professional installers in 31 countries in Europe, Northern Africa and Central Asia. Apart from a solid portfolio of premium parts manufacturers with OE pedigree and a full marketing support program including an AD Garage-network with 4500 members, ADI features a comprehensive technical service offer (trainings, technical information and hotline) to professional installers. The AD Group totals a turnover of 5.8 billion Euro of sales to professional repairers.
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