Two years after adding brake calipers to its product portfolio, Matt Leeming, Juratek’s Marketing Manager, explains why the company took this course of action.
We saw our brake caliper decision as a natural progression; we are a braking company and around 15% of a motor factor’s braking spend comes from this product category. We talk to our customers regularly and they were keen to have a uniform brand image across discs, pads and calipers, especially given the success they have in selling the Juratek brand in their local markets. They were also keen for it to be a surcharge-free product to cut down on the costs and hassle of dealing with old core.
We delivered the project from inception to launch in under a year, but this was only made possible by partnering with the best factories with the best quality control procedures. We had some good market data, and our customers helped a lot in terms of the initial range.
Due to the relationship we have with our suppliers, and the internal procedures we employ, we can react very quickly to customer demand and can introduce new part numbers in around three months. Whilst our initial release covered around 80% of customer demands, we were able to extend the range to over 240 part numbers by the end of the first year. And now the range is in excess of 280 references, with more to be added this year.
The calipers are 100% new, meaning there is no need to manage old core units or surcharges. Each old unit carries a surcharge cost, which the garage has already charged on to the customer. However, when the old core unit is returned, it may not be in a good enough condition to remanufacture, and the unit may be rejected by the supplier. If this happens, either the garage is out of pocket or, as is usually the case, the cost is absorbed by the motor factor. With the supply of brand new units, this problem disappears immediately. Another major benefit to stocking new calipers is there is no capital tied up in old core units, thus freeing valuable resources which can be used to expand the number of part numbers stocked, which leads to greater sales and less need to buy parts from more expensive sources to fulfil demand.
Despite our growing focus on the caliper range, we at Juratek are still hard at work developing new discs and friction technology. Even whilst dealing with the problems thrown at us by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to develop a range of 109 new discs, pads and wear leads in 2020, and have managed a further 32 so far in 2021, with approximately 150 more in the pipeline. We are also on the verge of launching a new range of braking products to further complement our existing range which will be announced in the coming months.
Whilst we do what most other suppliers do, which is to bring products into range from an application point of view, we have gone one step further. We have developed a system whereby when we are looking at customers’ stock, we can profile their range on their local vehicle population and also make sure that if they have got the discs in stock, then they have the pads. If they have the calipers on the shelf, we want them to have the pads too. This increases the availability and service levels of our customers and results in better sales.
