The Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance Inc. reports Auto Value shareholder owner Hahn Automotive and channel partner BBB Industries LLC have won the 2020 AASA Channel Excellence Award.
The award, presented by Epicor, honors suppliers and channel partners who collaborate to promote growth in the automotive aftermarket.
Hahn and BBB worked together on an innovative initiative that utilized technology, data analytics, robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, AV/VR, blockchain, and/or digital business processes. The project also had to advance the aftermarket, increase sales reduce costs, help prepare the aftermarket for becoming more digital, and significantly enhance efficiencies.
“This high-value project between Hahn Automotive and BBB is the epitome of collaboration and teamwork,” says Dale Hopkins, vice president and CIO at the Alliance. “A job well done that had a very positive impact on our customers.”
Rochester-based Hahn and its partner BBB were selected by a six-person industry committee as one of three sets of finalists. They partnered on a video submission telling the story of their innovation. Driv and Auto Value and Bumper to Bumper shareholder owner Auto-Wares Group of Companies were also named finalists, as were NGK and XL Parts.
“Hahn Automotive is extremely grateful for winning this year’s AASA Channel Excellence Award with BBB,” says Josh Futerman, one of the leads on the project at Hahn. “Hahn and BBB have been doing business together for a very long time, and it goes without saying that winning this award was a true collaborative effort. The most important aspect of winning this award is that by working together, we managed to increase our sales and coverage in our company owned locations without drastically increasing our inventory investment. A true win-win situation for both companies.”
Hahn and BBB’s project included the use of enhanced inventory modeling, the Alliance’s inventory optimization tool, and the Alliance’s Data Warehouse (an Epicor collaboration project) to lead to 10.2 percent increase in sales over inaugural locations, a 12.8% increase in unit inventory turns, and a 5.8% decrease in unit quantity on hand.
“This award recognizes and encourages innovation and collaboration between suppliers and valued channel partners to drive aftermarket growth. To win this award is a true testament of our team’s collaboration alongside our customer Hahn Automotive.
Hahn has been a customer for 30 years and it’s exciting to see we continue to find ways to strengthen our partnership,” says Kim Nolan, a vice president of sales at BBB Industries. “I want to congratulate our Category Management team, Josh McCabe & Patrick Pennington, our behind the scenes heroes at BBB and the entire Hahn organization for their willingness to share data and be a true channel partner!”
Hahn Automotive is the second Alliance shareholder owner to win the award, which is in its second year. In 2019, Parts Warehouse Inc. and Tenneco were recognized for a collaborative inventory analysis and repositioning to grow PWI’s share of the strut assembly category, reduce lost sales, and improve margin performance.
Auto Value and Bumper to Bumper are part of the independent member network of the Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance Inc., an aftermarket distribution and marketing program group. The network of independent warehouse distributors has thousands of parts stores and professional repair shops across North America, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Columbia, Europe and China.
For more information, go to www.autovalue.com or www.bumpertobumper.com.
