How the updated leadership team is transforming GSF

Following the acquisition by private equity firm Epiris and the Ahluwalia family, Sukhpal Ahluwalia, Steve Horne, and Martin Gray have joined GSF’s leadership team. In the first part of this interview with PMM Editor Kieran Nee, held during GSF’s TechFest event, the handbrake is ‘off’, though Sukhpal believes GSF is currently travelling in the middle lane.

Q. Sukhpal, you’re returning to the independent aftermarket after a time away – are you excited to back?

SA: “Well, the proof is in the pudding. You can see out there (points to the TechFest main area) that we’re clearly doing things differently. There’s a lot of excitement out there. It’s good for the business.

“Industry standards are being raised, and we believe the competition is extremely worried. Of course, the whole thing is raising the bar in the industry, and everyone takes it more seriously.”

Q. You’ve spoken in the past about the importance of seeing an opportunity and taking it. What was the opportunity you saw with GSF?

SA: “Fundamentally GSF was a good company. It had been in the hands of a number of owners in the last 10 years, and it had been through so much turmoil at the management level. So the decisions weren’t really long-term. You could see that everything was short-term and just to show good paper profit. So, there was a lot of scope and opportunity to make things better.

“We’ve identified it, and if you look at what we’ve done in the last seven, eight months, it’s phenomenal. They haven’t done this in the last 10 years.”

Q. Do you relish the challenge?

SA: “Always. If there’s no challenge, there’s no need for me. A steady- Eddie business has no need for me. We like a challenge; we like to take things from the slow lane into the middle and then into the fast lane. I think we’ve already taken GSF from the slow to the middle lane and – once we’ve got all of our infrastructure fixed in terms of IT, warehousing, people and the other enhancements going on – it’s totally moving into the fast lane.”

Q. What new challenges are there in the aftermarket that GSF has to contend with?

SH: “I think the fundamental basic in the aftermarket is the same. I think the customers want the same. They are offering a service to their customer, and they need a supplier who is going to support their business. Cars have got a little bit more technical, so there’s a little bit more technical work to do.

“As I said in a recent article on PMM Online, resourcing the industry is tough and trying to recruit that new resource in. Lots of people are looking at different ways, but it’s definitely a threat to the industry. But I think the fundamentals of servicing the customer and wanting a supplier to do that are exactly the same as they were.”

Q. So even with EVs, ADAS, autonomous vehicles, fundamentally, your role within the aftermarket pretty much stays the same?

SH: “It does; we might offer new products and new solutions, but our role as a distributor and a partner to the garage is exactly the same.

“We’ve got to make sure that the independent garages have the right tools and service to be able to service their customers and to maintain their reputation in the market. We’ve got to offer a quality service at the right price and that’s what our focus is.

One of the messages Sukhpal hammers into us throughout the business is that the customer is king. Any decision we make centres on supporting the customer, and if it’s not – and it’s not moving the needle – we don’t do it.

SA: “One of our main strategies here is to really align ourselves with the independent garage. Our focus is the professional motor mechanic workshop, the independents.”

Q. And does that mean things are less corporate at GSF, more down to earth?

SA: “Well, we are the only company now that is British, independent and entrepreneurial. I mean, the other two leading players, or the bulk of the market, are all controlled quarter-byquarter and the bosses are sitting across the Atlantic. That’s the difference.”

MG: “We’re a great believer in the independent, bearing in mind they will service any car: they will look after the family, the extended family and the individual. I think that trust (between garage and customer) is what we’re trying to recognise and tap into. Your point about being less corporate, that isn’t code for not being professional or not having integrity and the best processes, but it’s about being nimble and agile and just listening to our customer. That ties into, in terms of my role, looking after the people and the recruitment.

“Generally, a lot of people are joining us because they’re managed through perhaps a spreadsheet or a KPI – and there’s a place for some of that – but that’s predominantly how everything is done and decisions are made, which, locally, do not make sense because they’re taken from a centre or a boardroom. I think for us, the next two years, the next five years are about, how do we not take ourselves too seriously.

“We’re passionate, we want to do it right, but let’s put ourselves in our customers’ shoes. They’re not overly worried about the wider demographics and the macro make-up of Wall Street-owned businesses. They just want the things that they want. So, to answer your question, we generally see an opportunity to keep it simple: we’re keeping it simple, keeping it honest, keeping it real and that’s a hell of an achievement.”

Q. Do you spend much time getting into garages, meeting the end user?

MG: “We all spend a lot of our time as a senior team in garages and in branches. We don’t have officers, we don’t have PAs or executive suites, but we love it – Sukhpal didn’t need to come back, but it’s in our DNA and I think the customers feed off that.”

SH: “Next week we have the top senior managers in the business out for three days, visiting over 60 branches across the UK. This will be the second time this year we’ve done it. I’m a firm believer that if we’re going to sit in a room and decide, we’ve got to understand the impact on the customer and the branches. If you’re not out understanding them and the issues, you can’t make those decisions.”

MG: “We will be on the phones, ringing up customers and looking up car parts and so we’re not sitting at a distance thinking “what is it really like out there?” But we don’t do this for effect, we don’t actually shout about it. A lot of businesses have, I think, lost the essence and the point of what they’re really doing and because of Sukhpal’s 45-year background, he’s never lost that.

“Today (at TechFest), I’ve only been five minutes with Sukhpal, and we’ve had 12 people who have known him throughout the years coming up to him in just that five minutes and that comes through… no disrespect to our competition, but they don’t have that! The connectivity for us is very tight.”

Part two of our interview with Sukhpal, Steve and Martin appears in the September edition, and will be available online shortly.