The VIPAR Heavy Duty Annual Business Conference is off to a running start in San Antonio.
After an opening stockholder reception Sunday the event swung into full gear during Monday’s opening general session.
With in-depth presentations from the VIPAR Heavy Duty executive staff and all of its business unit leaders, sentiment was almost unanimously positive about the strength, stability and growth potential for the organization, and heavy-duty aftermarket at large.
VIPAR Heavy Duty President and CEO Steve Crowley says the company is zeroing in on yet another positive year, and says sales projections for VIPAR Heavy Duty and its members outpace the independent aftermarket.
“The future is very bright for the people in this room,” he says.
That positive outlook was reiterated by Bill Nolan, president at PBS Truck Parts and Board Chairman.
“VIPAR’s sole purpose is to make us more successful,” he says. “They are always striving to make us better.”
The company says it is working to drive that growth across a diverse platform of business units and sales opportunities. Program Manager Jamie Rogan says the company has added suppliers (or expanded product offerings from existing suppliers) in several emerging product categories to give VIPAR members new opportunities.
The company also has been active in enhancing the capability of Global Parts Network and its CoMan Centers remanufacturing business. Regarding Global Parts Network in particular, Jay Pagano, director of business development, says the company is working in conjunction with its friction providers to evaluate the growth opportunities for reduced stopping distance (RSD) brakes.
VIPAR Heavy Duty is growing in sheer size as well. The company recently entered the Mexican marketplace and now has eight stockholders in the nation with more than 60 locations. Combined with VIPAR Heavy Duty’s presence in the U.S. and Canada, and its 2014 acquisition of Power Heavy Duty, there are more than 830 distribution facilities under the VIPAR Heavy Duty umbrella in North America.
That growth also has led to significant improvements to the company’s marketing initiatives, says Jeff Paul, director of marketing.
An expansive in-store digital signage program and dramatically enhanced www.viproparts.com are among the group’s newest improvements.
Paul says the latter was beta tested with a handful of distributors in the spring before being introduced company-wide this summer. He says the website allows VIPAR Heavy Duty to present a master marketplace with brand specific marketplaces for participating distributors. The site allows customers to search for a part, and then provides contact information and online ordering for the nearest participating VIPAR Heavy Duty location.
“The effective use of technology enables our network of many to act as one,” he says.
VIPAR Heavy Duty’s other big marketing change is rebranding its VIPro Truck Force service network to TruckForce Service Centers. Paul says the name change presents a cleaner, stronger brand impression, and will be complemented by improvements to the group’s membership offering.
Monday’s busy schedule also featured a stockholder principal meeting, a young leaders cocktail reception (held in conjunction with GenNext) and evening reception for stockholders and suppliers. This week’s conference will continue through Thursday.
