Inter Cars moves upstream

 

Krzysztof Oleksowicz, a philosopher, admits that after graduating he had nothing to do.  

-  Graduating a technical school, I would construct bridges, medical school, I would be a doctor, and in this situation  – I just became a businessman. If I was twenty-something today, I might graduate some studies, or maybe not, I could be a killer, but surely I would not make such a business - says founder of Inter Cars. 

 

Sceptics and global leaders 

Krzysztof Oleksowicz recalls that at the beginning, his aim was PLN 1m turnover, because it was „cool and ambitious”, next USD 1bn. Now his Inter Cars aims in EUR 1 billion

 

-  What does EUR 1bn mean in this industry? We are number 5 in Europe. Bigger from us in not organic way, but thanks to takeovers, adding EUR300-400 million to their turnover. They are ahead of us just by 50 percent.  We can see much bigger difefrences in the world.  We are number 10, but comparing to American giants generating turnover of around USD 9-10bn, we are like Cinderella  – says Krzysztof Oleksowicz.

 

He emphasizes the fact that his colleges doubted in his activities many times. 

-  At the beginning of 90s, my old times business partner asked me:  "Kris, why are you investing?  It makes no sens, the Germans will get here any moment, having everything, and you will not be able to compete with them".  25 years have passed since that time, and Poland is a white spot for German companies, as it is the most competitive market in Europe - says Krzysztof Oleksowicz

 

He admits that courage was needed to take such decisions, but also courage to employ people.  

-  The same colleague, a very intelligent person, saw other threats. He wondered:  „not only you are investing, but you are also employing people? They will rob you!”. Today we employ around 4thousand people  – says the businessman.

 

Brutal finish of El Dorado

The beginnings were called by him a "common happiness", i.e. demand much bigger than supply.  

-  No matter what we produced or imported, we could sell it with ease. Later idea also became important.  Did we have a strategy?  No. We followed a rule: buy today, sell today. At that time margin was not interesting for anyone, we were not thinking about costs, cause which businessman would think about it when the revenue was growing by 40-50 percent?  - asked Krzysztof Oleksowicz.

 

But then there was the Russian crisis in 1998. 

-  Overnight we lost 30 percent turnover. The "common happiness" period ended in a sudden and brutal way.  The demand does not exceed the supply.  One must start calculating  – says founder of Inter Cars.

 

At that time, questions arose – how to operate optimally, what direction to develop, how to change the product range.

 

-  At that time we added to our portfolio parts for Italian and French makes, as before we focussed mostly on German ones. Today we have the widest product range – there is no other company, distributing spare parts for passenger cars and heavy goods vehicles – says Krzysztof Oleksowicz.

 

Precious owners 

This needed a unique distribution model Upstream of course.

-  Traditionally, the distributors supplied parts to external shops. We decided to sell using our own branches, which have their owners, as only such a person can sell goods to a garage.  They will talk like an owner with an owner, and not a manager with an owner - explains creator of Inter Cars. 

 

In this franchise system, the owner of the branch employs his staff, takes decisions on rebates, length of credit.  He shares margin with Inter Cars, and earns, as Krzysztof Oleksowicz argues, more than members of the management board of the company. 

 

-  Remuneration of branch owner has no top limit. If he is good, he can earn PLN 2m yearly.   The more he earns, the more we earn.  It is logical and makes sense.  But I cannot imagine that a manager from headquarters could accept earning less than a local manager.  This can only work in an ownership model  – says Krzysztof Oleksowicz.

 

So why the other did not use this solution? 

- T  his could work only in case of a leader in availability and perfectly working logistics – says the businessman. 

 

Similar organization works on foreign markets.  Under a supervision of local managers. 

 

-  The latest of our markets – Bulgaria, was not even visited by us. We managed to find a nice Bulgarian guy, who realizes our concept.  To some extent, it happens beyond us, we only have control mechanisms.  We share our knowledge, give hints, but not order or impose anything, as he knows the market better than we - argues Krzysztof Oleksowicz.  

 

Today Inter Cars also has branches in Latvia, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Czech and Slovakia. Western Europe was avoided, at least "brick and mortar" way.  But what is Internet for? 

 

-  In Germany we have created an Internet Shop, using which we supply customers with deliveries from Poznań. After half a year, turnover reaches EUR 200k monthly, and margin is really good. We would like to enter other countries the same way.  At the same time, we are reaching different type of customers this way, end users  – says founder of Inter Cars.

 

The company also reaches for them in Poland.  

 

-  The part itself is not enough, as the customer will have to go to a garage with it anyway.  Motointegrator is the response to this problem.  This is an „Internet reception”, thanks to which we direct the customers - drivers - to a garage. In a garage he is awaited by the parts and services he has ordered – says Krzysztof Oleksowicz.

 

Source: Puls Biznesu 

2015-06-17