Article Summary
Key highlights from MEMA’s June Pulse webinar
- 80% of MEMA members reported year-over-year sales growth in Q1 2026, with revenues rising 5% against 2025.
- Just 36% of fleets say Made in USA designations are very important to purchasing decisions, compared to 13% of dealers and 25% of aftermarket buyers.
- Only 30% of fleets are very likely to buy American-made parts priced above imported alternatives of equal quality.
- Distributors must stock economy, mid-range, and premium products to serve diverse customer preferences that vary by fleet and day.
- Brand reputation and price now outweigh country of origin, with customers prioritizing total cost of ownership over domestic sourcing.
Parts sourcing and pricing took center stage during MEMA’s Pulse webinar Wednesday, with MacKay & Company revealing insights from its recent survey regarding ‘Made in the USA’ products, followed by a panel discussion led by former Haldex leader Walt Frankiewicz about how much domestic vs. import products, and their associated quality levels, are driving current customer purchasing trends.
MEMA’s Philip Atkins, director, strategic research and planning, kicked off the webinar by sharing results from MEMA’s first quarter member survey.
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Atkins’ data illuminated what many in the aftermarket have known for a while — 2025 was an unremarkable, uneven year, but 2026 is tracking to be better. Atkins reported sentiment around business conditions among MEMA members bottomed out in the third quarter last year before optimism started to arrive in Q4. Better sales followed in Q1, as Atkins reported 80% of responders saw year-over-year sales up in opening months of 2026, with 57% reporting higher unit sales and revenues across the group rising by 5% against 2025.
But even though business has improved, Atkins and Wednesday’s other presenters note the challenges the aftermarket experienced last year (and in the post-pandemic supply chain crunch) continue to reverberate through the market today.
MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers
Customer preferences change in times of unease, and this decade has been far from status quo.
Panel shares insights from ever changing marketplace
“It’s very much a changing environment,” Tim Cahoon of Bill Murray & Associates said during Wednesday’s panel discussion on the parts sector. Focused mostly on country of origin for parts and how fleet customers perceive quality, the panel conversation was lively as Cahoon, Paul Birkenstock with Newmarket Sales Inc., and Steve Joyce at Joyce Sales LLC shared with Frankiewicz and the audience what they see and hear from their customers across the industry.
Consensus was reached, but only to say no consensus truly exists. How flees perceive ‘Made in the USA’ vs. import parts or evaluate economy lines and private labels against OE genuine parts varies from customer to customer, and day to day. For aftermarket distributors trying to serve everyone, the panelists acknowledge the market has gotten harder to serve.
“As a distributor you have to have coverage in all categories,” said Joyce. “You don’t what the fleet is looking for.”
“I think distributors have always been more open to economy and mid-range options,” Cahoon added. “Dealers have been more likely to stick with the OE product but now I think they’re seeing they need to open their eyes (to everything).”
Birkenstock agreed. “You can’t forget the fleet is the ultimate customer. You have to be listening to them and what they want.”
And the panelists believe what each fleet wants, in this market, is everchanging. Located in the Northeastern U.S., Birkenstock said his customers seem less focused on where a product is sourced or assembled than how much it costs and its performance levels. Made in America isn’t unimportant but it doesn’t appear to trump total cost of ownership.
Cahoon said some of his customers echo the same message, “‘I want the best quality for the best price.’” He said in cases where that’s an American-made product, great. But if it’s an imported product with a strong reputation and price, he doesn’t see many customers turning that down for a higher cost domestic option.
Joyce agreed, and added that even brand doesn’t hold the same weight across the marketplace that it used to. Some customers do remain furiously loyal, but others are willing to consider a mid-range or economy line if the price discrepancy is vast, or if the premium brands in the category aren’t as established.
“Brand name doesn’t really mean what’s in the box,” he said.
Data confirms boots on the ground perceptions
That uncertain balance between price, quality and source could be seen in MacKay & Company survey data as well.
Travis Kokenes, the company’s market research manager, reported Wednesday that in recent MacKay & Company polling, only 36% of fleets claimed ‘Made in the USA’ designations are ‘very important’ to their purchasing decisions. That’s a higher percentage than found in the dealer (13%) or aftermarket (25%) segments, but still indicates the limited influence country of origin has on buyers.
Additionally, while Kokenes reported a majority of dealers and distributors do believe U.S.-made parts have advantages in the marketplace — mostly around quality/performance and brand reputation — only 30% of fleets report they are ‘very likely’ to buy an American product that is priced above an imported part of equal quality. Along those same lines, only 23% of dealers and 46% of distributors state they promote U.S made parts over imported alternatives to customers when both are available.
Kokenes Wednesday also cited comments from fleet and distribution survey responders alike illuminating the gamut of opinions around parts evaluation. He said some fleets and parts operations believe American parts are better while others believe import lines are catching up. Other responders state the quality advantages of American parts are sometimes not enough to overcome higher prices; while others note paying a premium for quality is more important in some categories than others.
The inconsistency has created a market where “distributors have to have everything to sell anything,” Frankiewicz says.
