When you buy better, you sell better, but sometimes you need an extra set of hands-or checkbooks-to get good buying done. Power Heavy Duty brings independent distributors and service specialists together to create a more formidable purchasing power, enabling these companies to stay independent and competitive in the truck parts aftermarket.
To vie for marketshare, independent warehouse distributors (WDs) not only compete against one another, but also have to fight on two additional fronts: Warding off competition from roll-up groups and truck dealers.
In the mid 80s, marketing or buying groups formed to help independents gain equivalency with the big guys by allowing them to align themselves with a group in order to qualify for bulk purchasing rebates.
Power Heavy Duty was formed in 1994 by its president, Brett Upton. The organization is part of Elite Automotive Marketing, a roll-up group comprised of TruStar, an undercar two-step group; Eagle Nation, a group of traditional three-step automotive warehouses; and Axxis, a group for tool and equipment distributors. The organization is a family affair.
“My brother Steve Upton runs TruStar,” said Upton. “My cousin Kevin Medlin and I run Eagle Nation, Axxis and Power Heavy Duty.” Upton leveraged his experience in the automotive aftermarket to gain insight into the heavy-duty aftermarket and the potential for group buying.
“Basically, we help the distributor buy better. If he is buying, say, Triangle or Dayton parts or Baldwin filters, he’s buying on the WD program. But if he joins a group, he buys on the group program, which usually is based on the group’s annual volume,” said Upton.
“While an individual distributor might do $100,000 a year with a certain manufacturer, we probably do $10 million in business with them as a group, so the distributor receives rebates on the entire group volume or group growth-whatever we can do to help someone buy better.”
