Since the end of August 2017 the automotive after sales industry was discussing the possible acquisition of STAHLGRUBER and guessing who the potential buyer could be: distributors, investors or maybe car manufacturers?

Finally several days ago the official news scotched the rumors – LKQ signed an agreement to acquire STAHLGRUBER. LKQ, an American distributor of automotive parts, entered European market only in 2011, by an acquisition of European Car Parts.
6 years of M & A activities made LKQ an absolute leader in the European aftermarket. According to LKQ, after the acquisition of STAHGRUBER, turnover of the company will reach EUR 5,1 bn (also incl. Mekonomen with LKQ’s share of 26,5%). That is more than twice as high as turnover of Automotive Alliance Group (AAG) – the second largest company in the market.

AAG, in turn, was recently acquired by Genuine Parts Company (GPC) – another American distributor. This takeover was a big surprise for Aftermarket players. With this coup GPC, a leading auto parts network in North America and Australia secured a wide presence in Europe – AAG serves the market through 2000 outlets in France, Germany, the UK and Poland.
In the recent years, AAG also undertook numerous acquisitions and doubled its revenue (EUR 1,2 bn in 2014 vs. EUR 2,1 bn in 2016).

The consolidation in the automotive aftermarket is accelerating and the number of M & A transactions is increasing significantly during the last years.

The companies are looking for new opportunities to increase the profitability and extend their geographical footprint. New industrial challenges, driven by developing new technologies and digitalization, also require synergies. The further consolidation is expected.

The consolidation process is complex. Beside the big important deals mentioned above there are much more transactions in the Aftermarket, some of them are also cross-industry, involving different parts of Automotive Industry Supply Chain: car manufacturers, parts manufacturers, distributors, NTGs/ITGs, auto centers, online business and garages (e.g. PSA and Mister-Auto, BPW and Herz, AAG and Groupauto Poland).
To stay updated with Aftermarket news, a continuous monitoring process of the Aftermarket transactions is needed.
At the end of November 2017 Wolk After Sales Experts released a new Factbook “Consolidation Process in the European Aftermarket, 2012-2017”, that provides with an overview of all important transactions in the European Aftermarket. The handbook covers the acquisitions of more than 20 Aftermarket Players, including such details as turnover of each company, obtained share and regional cover.
Moreover, for each company-acquirer, there is an additional page with more detailed information (headquarter, number of employees and outlets, turnover development (if available), geographical footprint etc. )

Additionally, we offer a quarterly update of handbook once a quarter (charts with new transactions will be sent via email).