"I don't see it happening," says Ron Decker, a consultant for the Fresno, Calif.-based Smith Auto. "Even in the factory motor parts world, those kind of people are struggling to figure out their role. They can't do it, they don't have the facilities to go direct to the installer, let alone a manufacturer trying to do it."
Decker adds that another component figures heavily into this equation, and that is service. In the "I need it now" world of auto repair, service can make or break a warehouse distributor — and service is the one thing a larger manufacturer often cannot provide to a jobber.
"Service is just as important, or even more important, than needing to buy a product at a better price," Decker says. "If you can't get (a product) to (a jobber), it doesn't do you any good."
Betty Jo Young, co-owner of Young's Automotive in Houston, agrees that when it comes to purchasing parts, service — and not price — if often foremost in her mind.
"Service is absolutely part of it, and you also build a kind of trust thing," Young says. "When you're talking about a global economy, you certainly don't want to be buying direct from out of the country. You need a buffer, and your supplier is your buffer. They're the ones who are really taking the risk by bringing the parts in, and we can always take them back to them."
Young says that, as a service provider, she depends on her suppliers to get her stockroom full, and that she has no plans to step out on her own and buy direct from any manufacturer.
But buying direct can cause problems in areas other than service, says Tom Rafferty, the director of program distribution for the Affinia Group. In fact, the main problem he sees with one-step distribution is that parts proliferation has made it an almost untenable system.
"One-step distribution is not a growing trend," Rafferty says. "In fact, we've had a limited amount of direct programs with installer chains. What we're finding now is that those type of chains seem to be moving away from a direct program because of parts proliferation. It's really hard for them to stock the right product. It's hard for them to know what product to stock, because it requires more inventory, more capital and more shelf space."
Rusty Bishop, the chief executive officer of Federated Auto Parts Distributors, agrees that parts proliferation does present a large problem to manufacturers interested in selling directly to the jobbers. But, that's not the only difficulty they face.
"There are only going to be certain mega-installer chains that have the ability to buy direct because of their size," he says. "But the ability to get the parts closest to where they're installed on a car presents a problem, too."
According to Decker, Bishop's analysis of the situation is spot-on. He cites the Midas shops in his area that for a long time tried to buy direct from the manufacturer. However, in the end, they found that it was too expensive to inventory everything. So they started working with NAPA, and buying their products from local NAPA stores.
"Now the local guys are talking to me, because they need something even closer to their shops that can provide them with good service," Decker says. "There's a lot of scenarios being played out right now."
Affinia's Rafferty agrees. "In most markets, those service dealers, whether it's a chain or an individual, they're getting delivery from our channel partners in 20 minutes, any time they place an order. That precludes the need for manufacturers to go direct."
In the end, if any trend is developing, Bishop says it's a trend for both installers and warehouse distributors to rely on jobbers more than ever before.
"We haven't seen one-step growing in the past few years, or really not much at all over the past decade," he says.
