Advice needed, Starting a Parts shop locally.

Hi Guys,

I am looking into starting a Rover parts shop locally and looking for some advice on wholesalers which would sell small quantities of items.

My reason for this is I intend to start off with service items first then stock other items as the business grows.

So far my online searching has led me to Alibaba, and the quantities at which they sell items are far too much. Example, I would like to order max 100 genuine or branded oil filters for P38, but they are sold in quantities of 1000.

I would appreciate any other advice, or links to other part wholesalers.

Regards

Speak to your local truck place or volvo trucks, they use MANN and tbh you cant beat their filters they might be able to come to an arrangement so you give them a small handling charge and they order them in

dude i hate to brake this to you. But if im understaning this right you only want to supply rover parts. You will find it very hard to get enough custom to make it wort while and competing with the big boys (CES, A1 motor factors, part co, ect.) will be very hard. just a heads up. but Why dont you start with a small ebay shop or summin like that.

fix it said:

dude i hate to brake this to you. But if im understaning this right you only want to supply rover parts. You will find it very hard to get enough custom to make it wort while and competing with the big boys (CES, A1 motor factors, part co, ect.) will be very hard. just a heads up. but Why dont you start with a small ebay shop or summin like that.

Click to expand...

Have they all got branches in St Lucia?

why dont you try britpart ,reamach ,allmakes etc as the rest do ,im sure they would make up consignments ,worth a try as they all sell genuine oe etc as well as pattern

livers said:

Have they all got branches in St Lucia?

Click to expand...

Was just thinking that:doh::doh:, Fix it, you do realise he ain't from round here don't you

nope dint know that sorry

Hey guys thats for the replies and advice so far.

Speak to your local truck place or volvo trucks, they use MANN and tbh you cant beat their filters they might be able to come to an arrangement so you give them a small handling charge and they order them in

Click to expand...

Dave18, thanks, I will speak to the local garages, but they don deal with specific truck models, the truck on island are basically imported or resurrected (we still have a few leyland trucks crawling on our roads). Its an option.

dude i hate to brake this to you. But if im understanding this right you only want to supply rover parts. You will find it very hard to get enough custom to make it wort while and competing with the big boys (CES, A1 motor factors, part co, ect.) will be very hard. just a heads up. but Why dont you start with a small ebay shop or summin like that.

Click to expand...

Fix it, when you mentioned CES, i thought you were familiar with our local dealers. CES here is Computer place, also sells vehicles, VW brand and recenlty chinese makes. I like the idea of using ebay, it will allow me to sell to other neighboring Caribbean islands.

Have they all got branches in St Lucia?

Click to expand...

Livers, we have a CES but i don't think its the same. We also have Piton, Heiniken, Chairmans reserve, Bounty rum and other stuff for the "liver"

why dont you try britpart ,reamach ,allmakes etc as the rest do ,im sure they would make up consignments ,worth a try as they all sell genuine oe etc as well as pattern

Click to expand...

Thanks James, I will email the britpat and allmakes to see whats possible, though i havent heard good stuff about them on the forums. I will have a look at Beamach and do some research on their stuff.

Thanks for your help so far guys, much appreciated...any more suggestions are welcome.
I am now gonna look for a name to call this new business.

britpart as with bearmach etc do a range of parts genuine which alot if not most genuine parts come through them,also oe and pattern parts as well as well known brands ebc ,lockheed ,ap etc

I have emailed Britpat and Allmakes, haven't received any replies so far, I will call next week.

They aren't easy to deal with. It also looks like they are happy dealing with a small number of big distributors, rather than lots of small distributors. You can see why (lowers their costs), but this just leads to price fixing.

If you get no luck from Allmakes, Britpart and Bearmach, the next thing to do is try to tie up with one of the big distributors like Paddock, MM4x4, Brookwells and so on. You'll lose out a little on margin, but at least you won't have to order such large quantities.

also try john craddock in cannock he sells in bulk