CAR: Inter Cars is committed to B2C.

 

During this time, from a small business located on 300 square metres of its first warehouse, the company transformed into the fifth power in Europe, and tenth in the whole world and is just launching its biggest ever logistics project - construction of ILS European Logistics and Development Centre in Zakroczym.

 

Inter Cars is present in 12 countries with 378 branches.  For 11 years the company has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and for the last year it generated sales results of around PLN 3.5bn.  It employs 6 thousand people connected by passion and common business aim.  Currently the company is number 5 in Europe and number 10 in the world in its industry, but is planning to improve the result in the nearest time. 

 

The beginnings of the company came together with a very important moment in history of Poland - the year 1989, when economic freedom came together with regained political freedom.   Open for changes and forming Polish business reality turned out to be a good chance for many people.  But not many of them were able to take this chance and create a huge company, whose history which is lasting till today is the beginning of tomorrow. 

 

Such a possibility was noticed by Krzysztof Oleksowicz when he was opening the first branch of Inter Cars in Warsaw, at 64 Powsińska Street.  Thanks to creativity, courage and huge diligence he reached the success which can be used as a model success story for many companies. 

 

The founder of Inter Cars, in an unusual way could turn ideas and market potential into a public limited company, becoming a giant on the market of automotive spare parts. 

 

As he says:  "From the perspective of time, I can divide the past years of running a business into three stages. First of them are years between 1989 and 1998.  At that time the demand dominated the supply, and an entrepreneur such as me had to present mostly courage and ability of "dealing" with different issues and matters.

 

The second stage was the year 1998 and the Russian crisis.  It was a time when supply reached the level of demand, and sales decreased by 30%. So the cost of running a business came to the forefront.  The period after 1998 was a time when supply exceeded the demand by far.  In this period, just like today, the ability of building a market strategy and cooperation became crucial.  These experiences built maturity of the business and the company, which allows reaching further success - he added. 

 

Crucial for the history of Inter Cars were the rules, which has remained unchanged for all the years of its activity. Innovation, organic growth based on partnership and care for creating added values, are slogans which were the shining star leading company founders when creating and developing the product range for the customers, as well as when creating an extensive distribution chain in the country and abroad. Inter Cars keeps creating and implementing new solutions, which meet constantly changing needs of the market operated by 378 distribution branches, and satisfy them in full.

 

A turning point in the history of the company was the year 2004, when the company went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. After 10 years of presence on the stock market, Inter Cars was rewarded with the title of Stock Exchange Company of the Year, and its value was calculated on the level of PLN 3.5bn. The year 2014, stable growth on the stock-market - index WIG closed it with the level of about 1% less, than it started - brought fall of Inter Cars share price down to PLN 163 in July, and then a rapid growth up to PLN 225 at the end of December. Consolidated net profit of the Group went up by 20% in comparison to a year ago.  Inter Cars recorded almost a 13% increase in sales revenue in 2014 in comparison to a year before. 

 

Sales revenue growth in core business activity, i.e. domestic sales of parts, reached the level of 12%, exceeding growth declared by other distributors (around 5% yoy).  In 2014 Inter Cars launched around 40 new branches, which meant that the distribution chain grew to 330 outlets at the end of the year, including 169 branches in Poland and 161 abroad. 

 

The company was growing faster than its competitors on most geographical markets. The average growth of foreign distribution subsidiaries was over 25% y/y.  Foreign subsidiaries, located in 12 countries, won leading positions on their markets or will do so in the next few years.  The success in 2014 is mainly due to development of the product range. The market was growing, but the competitive pressure was also stronger, mainly because of fall in export sale of domestic distributors after the Ukrainian crisis, to such countries as:  Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine.  In 2015 Inter Cars share price rocketed to PLN 260 per share, and later there was a correction down to PLN 222 on 10th June.  The market expects that with sales increase by over 10% y/y in the current year, the net profit of the Group will cross the level of PLN 200 million. 

 

Bridge to the future

 

Founders of Inter Cars, in all their activities, are following a slogan:  "Together we change the motoring industry". In the closest future the company will be concentrating on intensive development of several areas.  The company is implementing a new system (WMS) in logistics and building a new Logistics Centre in Zakroczym.  The centre which is to cost PLN 150 million, of which over a half will be spent on inter-warehouse logistics solutions (innovative sorter system in the whole automotive spare parts industry), is to be launched in the middle of 2016.  It is also a very important investment from the point of view of the region (the centre will employ 250 people for the beginning) and the new premises which are to become the main warehouse in the whole logistics system of the Group is also a gate to international development of the company.  The second area which Inter Cars wants to develop is expanding relations with customers by means of new technologies.

 

This will allow building strategic advantages in dynamically changing world of consumers and their needs.  For this reason the company concentrates on development of Motointegrator.pl platform, which is visited by 500,000 even up to one million drivers monthly, of which 25 thousand purchase services each month. Basing on this experience, Inter Cars Company constructed three further platforms which are helping repair garages reaching the customers and meeting their needs: www.moto-uslugi.com, www.motowygoda.pl and Motointegrator Partner programme. Inter Cars is not only distribution, but also remanufacturing of automotive spare parts and components - realized by Lauber company, and semi-trailer manufacturing - realized by Feber company. 

 

After 25 years of operation, Inter Cars Company is a partner operating by the rules win-win, putting added values first, instead of competing with prices, helping its partners in development and launching B2C activities only as a set of benefits for the customers from B2B area. But above all, Inter Cars is a company reacting to changes and still looking for a new bridge to the future. It is a company ready for tomorrow.

 

Source:biznes. interia. pl 

2015-06-26