THE INEVITABLE COLLABORATIVE PATH

of a digitalization that they have made essential to the functioning of all downstream markets.

The opportune digitalization

And it is precisely this digitalization that now allows parts and vehicle manufacturers to dream of going beyond distribution and repair to reach the final customer. Driven in this direction by the dizzying investments imposed by environmental challenges, vehicle manufacturers have decided to bet big on the sale of their vehicles online and to reduce their distributors to the simple role of sales agents. They also intend to take advantage of the fantastic data war announced for connected vehicles. It can allow them to finally capture and follow the customer, BtoC as well as BtoB, from the time the vehicle is put on the market until the end of its life. By directing the customer towards the new vehicle, the used car or the workshops is in the best interests of their car brands.

The major tire manufacturers are following the same path. With their monstrous investments in BtoC communication, they are also deploying their own direct online sales where they display tire prices that even their distributors can no longer reach! They do this with all the more conviction as they have bought out, or kept their distributors under control. At the same time, they have developed or acquired networks of tire specialists to which they can direct the online tire buyer.

Dealership groups pushed to independence

But if the race to the end customer war has begun, its outcome is far from certain. By wanting to reappropriate the costs of new vehicle distribution, vehicle manufacturers are also forcing their historical car dealers to urgently revisit their business model. In doing so, they are forcing them to reinvent and rethink themselves as independents. After having long considered after-sales service as a necessary evil for sales, dearlership groups understand that maintenance and repair is becoming vital for them. Especially when the auguries are all predicting that by 2030, IAM will hold 70% of the aftermarket.

For several years, some visionary dearlership groups had certainly begun to hybridize with independent repair concepts, which were often franchised. Aware of the role of the aftermarket service in maintaining customer relations, they are now diversifying into independent parts distribution (D’Ieteren Group with the European PHE, Emil Frey France with the French distributors Flauraud, and then MGA) and spreading their territories with multi-brand brands capable of serving the expectations of older vehicles.

The inevitable collaborative path

For parts, even if some well-known suppliers also dream of doing business with the end customer, it can only be by proxy: part manufacturers cannot do without the powerful logistics and service scheme of independent distribution. For the part manufacturer, the real end-customer remains the repairer, who will continue a symbiotic relationship with his distributor who delivers, trains and supports him more and more financially, commercially and organizationally.

Because they are both as powerful as they are legitimate, the trilogy of part manufacturer/distributor/ independent repairer, the workshops of car dealers in the midst of an existential transformation, as well as the manufacturers who are greedy for domination, will have to share the end customer’s cake for one simple reason: none of them can swallow it alone. They have always been fierce competitors and will obviously remain so. But the solid foundations of these three pillars of the after-sales ecosystem, confronted together with the challenge of agility imposed by digital acceleration, show them the only viable middle way: a necessary and pragmatically collaborative approach which, if it remains to be invented in many forms, is already being sketched out by the most far-sighted players.

But the solid foundations of these three pillars of the aftermarket ecosystem, confronted together with the challenge of agility imposed by digital acceleration, show them the only viable middle way: a necessarily and pragmatically collaborative approach which, if it remains to be invented in many forms, is already being sketched out by the most far-sighted players. 