Success for independent distributors is often equally found in both what the business does and in what it does not, serving specific market needs and finding a niche for specialized products and services.
VIPAR Heavy Duty helps its more than 115 member companies representing 500 plus locations throughout North America focus on those strengths by providing non-core nuts-and-bolts support, as well as the leveraged resources of an aftermarket marketing group.
“We need to do for the distributor what they can’t do individually,” says VIPAR President and CEO Steve Crowley. “We work on those areas, whether it is technology, putting programs together of a national scope with vendors, or programs of a national scope with fleets or repair networks.”
VIPAR, he says, always is looking for ways to make members more efficient, even if that means finding programs and products that may be considered non-traditional. As a result, it provides a large and diverse portfolio, ranging from a VIPro TruckForce-branded service network to an online training library, and from group insurance programs to corporate automotive fleet leasing. What VIPAR offers, Crowley says, “may be non-core to their business in that they’re not reselling the products, but they are core to the everyday expenses and operation of the distributor.”
Mirroring the precise and selective business models of its stakeholders has proved successful, and the Crystal Lake, Ill.-based VIPAR consistently adds new members each year. “We’ve looked for better ways, more efficient ways to do things,” Crowley says. “We’ve also found area’s where we didn’t belong, where the distributors were much better doing it themselves on a local basis. So we focus on where we can have the most positive impact.”
TYING TOGETHER TECHNOLOGY
Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than with technology.
According to Crowley, VIPAR was at the forefront in developing an e-commerce system for independent aftermarket distributors, and it continues to innovate in this area. “In the mid-90s, VIPAR and some of its stockholders had the foresight to build this industry’s first electronic commerce platform. We have taken that base platform and reinvented it through utilizing new technologies. It keeps evolving and now it is certainly the largest e-commerce suite in the heavy-duty aftermarket,” he says.
