Japanparts: The Power of Three

Since its creation in 1988, Japanparts Group has specialised in spare parts for Asian, European and American vehicles, under its three brands: Japanparts, Ashika and Japko labels. With the head offices in Verona, Italy, the group is now looking to establish itself further in the UK aftermarket. PMF finds out more about what the company has to offer after three decades of growth.

Today, Japanparts Group has over 30,000 part numbers for each of the three brands. The range of products distributed by Japanparts includes 140 different product groups for all types of spare parts, from engine components to brakes, from clutches to electrical parts, only excluding car body parts. Capitalising on the growth in the Far East automotive market has led the company, in a short time, to a top position in the automotive spares sector.

The company had a turnover in excess of €75 million in 2016, and exports to more than 70 countries across five different continents. Between 2014 and 2016, Japanparts Group has seen double-figure growth in turnover, both in Italy and in exports, and has confirmed the positive trend of previous years.

Warehouse expansion

Success has allowed Japanparts Group to invest and, as a result, has recently completed an important step towards improving the company footprint, by adding shock absorbers to its range of products. Almost overnight, this has become one of the leading ranges in the company’s portfolio.

Japanparts Group has managed to overcome a difficulty in logistics, since the quantities in stock were not enough to satisfy requests from the market. At the same time, the space available in the warehouses was limited, at approximately 20,000m² – yet this was insufficient to receive the new stock on arrival. So, in 2016, the company opened a new designated warehouse for shock absorbers opposite the historical headquarters, thus increasing the surface area by a further 13,000m², dedicated exclusively to this product category.

In the coming year, Japanparts expects to open up a fourth warehouse, reaching a total of 40,000m² of total storage area, which should ensure a fast delivery service, in addition to increased stock coverage.

Online offering

The company takes pride in its ability to anticipate trends and to work in a global context. In fact, it claims to be one of the first to invest in a professional catalogue to be freely accessed over the internet, courtesy of TecDoc. The catalogue on the websites (three, one for each retail brand), thanks to a large number of photographs, measurements and technical information, simplifies and accelerates identification of the correct spare part, thus allowing distributors to save precious time. Recently, in addition to the ‘search by vehicle’ function, the group also added a ‘search by chassis’ and by license plate (reserved for Japanparts partner distributors). These systems are integrated with the potential for distributors to verify the availability of the individual item in real time and to proceed directly to placing orders from their own reserved area. This operation has contributed to significantly increasing turnover.

The update now provides customers who visit the site with three-dimensional photographs of the products, making it possible to identify the spare part and make the correct choice.

Alessandro Piazza, General Manager of Japanparts Group, commented on the company’s success: “The strength of Japanparts Group lies in its flexibility, the speed at which it adapts to a fast-paced global market, increasingly significant stocks, and limited costs. Improving these qualities is our main objective for the future.”

Breaking into Britain

Japanparts has been operating in the British market for over 10 years, working with a variety of clients who guarantee the distribution of the three brands throughout the country.

The UK provides an important testing ground for the group, particularly this year as the country works out the consequences of the Brexit decision. That being said, 2017 was definitely a positive year. The company believes the British market is of strategic importance, especially as it is not yet completely saturated and is certainly destined to grow over the coming years.

Looking further into the future, Japanparts hopes to extend this period of growth that it is currently experiencing. It has clear objectives, an idea as to the strengths of the company and the areas where there is room for improvement.