The charter members of the China Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance (CAAPA) wrapped up their initial fact finding and discovery tour of North America with working meetings with three Alliance shareholders in Southern California.
Collaborating with their North American peers, the contingent of visitors gained one-on-one interaction to learn skills to take back to their own markets from the established operators in North America.
Meetings with the leadership teams at Warren Distributing, Metro and Hanson Distributing Company focused on best practices in the areas of distribution, the criticality of forging strong ties with service center customers and effective sales and marketing techniques.
While at Warren Distributing the group met with President Brian Weiss and Vice President Sales & Marketing Pat Winters and toured the master Santa Fe Springs facility and one of the Warren satellite facilities in Santa Monica.
The next stop was Pico Rivera and the new, state-of-the-art distribution center of Metro. A Q&A session about the facility followed with General Manager Robert Ramirez and Operations Manager Ken Auer.
The final stop for the contingent was Hanson Distributing in Azusa. Dan Hanson Sr., President & CEO; Dan Hanson Jr., Senior Vice President & Director of Store Operations; Steve Cox, Chief Operating Officer; and Berng Yeh, Vice President & Director of Fulfillment & Data Services, treated the group to a master warehouse tour and presentation on warehouse operations. They then traveled to stores including California Auto Supply in Pomona and Walnut Auto Parts in Rowland Heights.
“The experience of visiting these incredibly impressive operations is something that will help us tremendously when we return home,” said Zhang Xiwen, chairman of CAAPA. “Our own markets are growing and evolving every day and the experience here is almost like peering into the future. It was both overwhelming and invigorating.”
“We packed a lot into a one week visit,” said John R. Washbish, President & CEO of the Alliance. “Our new China partners were not exactly sure what to expect during their visit to America. We promised to teach them how we ‘do it’ at the Alliance and with the expert assistance of these three ‘world class’ shareholders, we more than delivered on our promise.”
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