From a strong base in France, the Sifam Group is expanding ever deeper into other European markets, aiming to be one of a handful of major players across the continent in five years’ time. IDN visited the group’s base at St Laurent du Var, near Nice in the south of France, to find out more.
Some 40 out of Sifam’s 87 staff are based at Saint Laurent du Var, including all support functions
“Our main focus? Getting out there and selling product!” “Getting out there and selling product!” Work schedules for staff are kept as flexible as possible. But the other side is that if there is a sudden rush, staff will be expected to work as long as it takes. For the IT department, one staffer has to be on post within minutes if the system goes down. Sifam has separate subsidiaries in France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Poland. n each of these there is a director, sales manager, sales team, secretary, product specialist and order checker, all working directly on Sifam’s main online system. Every customer can order via one of the sales team or directly from the website. If the former, in Italy for example, the sales staffer will pass the order to Sifam Italy, which will check the status of the customer, and place the order, which is then registered by export market specialists in St Laurent and placed in the delivery queue. The structure and systems in place showed their
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value in 2005, when, after a fire, the group was up and running again soon after. In 2007, Sifam moved into the current purpose-built facility at Saint Laurent du Var, with 3,900 sq.m. of warehouse space and an attached office suite. he warehouse at any one time contains E3 million worth of stock, including 201,000 batteries, 37,000 chain and sprocket kits, 1,000,000 spark plugs, 159,500 brake pads, 154,000 tyres, 64,000 filters, 71,000 helmets and 80,000 litres of oil, representing 19,000 separate part numbers. In 2010 the facility directly supplied 5,000 customers in Europe, of which 2,600 were in France, 1,000 in Italy, 80 in Switzerland and smaller numbers in 24 other countries in Europe and around the world. Stock turnover is very rapid because all orders are fulfilled directly from the St Laurent facility, for example the Italian subsidiary’s orders go direct to Italian customers from there. “We shift 500 boxes and 20 pallets every day,” says Pierre, “and our 24-hour production schedule means maximum efficiency and maximum return on our fixed investments. We have built up very close relationships with transport companies and aim to fulfil an international order the next day if it is received by 11.00, and a French order by 17.00. In France, Sifam is a distributor for Athena, Bosch, Dunlop, Pirelli, Bridgestone, Champion, Duro, Esjot, Fabbri, Gates, Izumi, Kappa, Koyo, Mach, Marving, Osram, Regina, Skyrich, Supersprox, V-Max, Vesrah and Yuasa, amongst others, and apart from these high-end brands, also offers its own medium-level brands, such as Kyoto hard parts and consumables, and S-Line helmets and apparel.“Kyoto is recognised in the market as a brand that is really good for dealers, because it offers excellent quality and value for money,” says Pierre.
The warehouse is highly automated, with advanced stock control software in use
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The warehouse has a ‘Transtockeur’, a customdesigned automatic stocking system with a 10metre computer-guided stacker crane
Production of own-brand lines is sub-contracted all over the world: in China, Taiwan and India, but also in Italy and Germany for higher-end products. ifam distributes Yuasa high-end batteries in France, and Kyoto own-brand medium-range batteries. According to Pierre, they must always remain vigilant with own-brand products. “A few years back our dealers told us they were starting to have problems with some of our batteries, so we dumped our stock and found an alternative supplier who could guarantee the quality we needed.” Sifam France is one of the top three parts and accessories distribution companies in France, where it claims 10% of the consumables market and the
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>>> INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - JANUARY 2011
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