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m of the parts
Page 24
Page 25
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Nrthur Pinkney, boss of parts supplier Imexpart and intermittent thorn
n the side of MAN, is a self-confessed stickler for detail — but look
Nhere it's got him. Brian Weatherley meets a man of many parts...
yr ou've got to be a bit of an anorak to get excited over truck parts. Arthur Pinkney not only gets worked up about them, he .1so keeps catalogues in his bedside cabinet. (ou think that's funny? Laugh this off: 20 years Ifter leaving MAN to start his own rival parts Pusiness Pinkney is making an 8% pre-tax irofit on a annual turnover of 7m.
"It's quite sad isn't it, really?" says Pinkney with a smile. "I'd struggle to change the bloody wheel on my car I'm not embarrassed about hat but if you want me to go out and find that wheel for you, I might spend half a day but I'll et you the best deal."
He readily accepts that the world of CV parts iardly gets the juices flowing: "We try to sex it ip but you can't, because it isn't glamorous. lowever,I find it fascinating. If you look at the :upply chain with any manufacturing industry here's money to be made. It's risky,but if you're prepared to take the risk and the biggest risk is stock it really can work."
It's certainly worked for Imexpart. Over the past five years the company's enjoyed an average annual growth of 9-10%. "Do the sums yourself," says Pinkney. "We're going to be at £10-11m before we know it."
Parts picker-packer
Not bad for a bloke who left school at 16 "with very few qualifications" to become a parts picker-packer for MAN, which was then based in his home town of Bradford.
-11oved it!" he recalls."It was really hands-on, picking the parts for the dealer network. I was curious. I wanted to know what parts did and what they were for.-There followed a steady rise within the organisation by way of 'parts interpretation' to export sales before MAN told him: "We're off down to Swindonwould you like to come?" Pinkney remembers the move clearly: "I said OK. It was the early 1980s, there were no jobs about so I moved down to Swindon on a Friday, got married on the Saturday morning and started work on the Monday. You can imagine that was a great honeymoon!"
But after two years running MAN's parts export operation the lure of the North proved too strong: "I loved the company, loved the product. MAN was my heart," says Pinkney. "I really wanted to stay within the organisation. So I made some enquiries and was offered a position within the parts department of a franchised MAN dealer in Wakefield." As parts manager Pinkney recalls: "I really got things running shipshape and within 12 months we were winning awards."
Then the problems started.
For Pinkney it boiled down to a simple question: How much profit should a manufacturer make on its parts? "When I crossed the line from a manufacturer to a distributor the relationship with customers was very different. On the trade counter I was on the front line and almost immediately I was getting all the crap over prices.I suppose I'd been cocooned within the MAN organisation. Looking back most customers didn't really know any different, but if I was selling a part for £150, and I knew it cost £20, then sorry but I'd struggle to sleep at night and to look the guy in the eye."
Pinlaity's response was to suggest to MAN that it could lower its parts prices while still making good margins. "They did some work," he says, "but pretty much said,'No, we're quite happy.' So I said,'Well if you won't, I will."
Thus was born Imexpart, the 'alternative' MAN parts supplier company which has been a thorn in the side of the German truck maker since 1986 and with whichit continues to have a strange. almost tentative,relationship to this day.
Using his knowledge of OEM suppliers — often the same firms that supply MAN — Pinkney was soon busy tracking down stock: "MAN was all I knew; it was the obvious starting point. I'd also built up a very good reputation with all the key accounts within the Yorkshire area and in Nottingham, but procurement was the important thing. I knew who the OEM suppliers were, and I knew some would deal with me and some wouldn't."
It's not hard to imagine the response of MAN dealers (especially the local ones) to Imexpart — although significantly, 70% of the company's business in its first year was outside Yorkshire. "None of them were happy," Pinkney confirms. -Although it's interesting, because from what! can gather it gave some of them ammunition and confirmed what they'd been thinking for many, many years."
However, he was adamant about one thing: "From day one I said we would not ruin ti market and would go out of our way to crea stability in the marketplace. We put their reti price on our invoice. We did that 19 years at and we do it today and then we discount th price. Now you tell me how many compani put their competitor's price on the invoice?"
Pinkney readily admits that the scale of h success has come as something of a shock:"I w: always confident, but it's turned into somethir quite special. But with humble surroundings,tv■ people. 92m' of rented premises and intere rates at 16% everything was stacked against us couldn't imagine it as the beast it is today."
All-makes business
From 800. mainly MAN, product lines in 198 Imexpart now handles 12,000 lines including a all-makes engine range for cars and CVs. I original MAN business is now backed up by V‘ van parts and an all-makes cab panel range.
However, Pinkney stresses that furth( growth won't distract him: "People ask me a the time, 'OK you've done a good job on MAr why not do the same for Volvo or Mercedes' Looking at another manufacturer would be possibility for the future but you've got to be vet careful not to dilute your core business. We look at their network, talk to operators and loo for the weak link.Some manufacturers are mot switched on and some would put up a fight."! other words the bar is a lot higher than in 1986.
"Undoubtedly,Pinkney confirms. "It give me a real buzz when we're credited with the jo we do, but there's a lot more to Imexpart tha MAN." Talking of which, what do the folks i Swindon think of Pinkney now?
"Maybe you should ask them that question! he smiles."It's a strange one; 19 years on they'v not got rid of me. I think I've become th acceptable face of competition." •