ATR International AG, the world’s largest trade cooperation for automotive spare parts, aspires to invest more in the development and expansion of the Latin American spare parts market. As a local business partner, ATR was able to win over International Business Development (IBD), an absolute expert in this field. IBD, based in Santiago de Chile, has been supporting international companies – mainly from the automotive sector – in business development in the local Latin American markets for almost 50 years. So far, ATR is represented in South America by its shareholders DPK - Comercial Automotiva SA in Brazil, Carlos Vázquez S.A. and Reydi de HP S.A. in Argentina and Mannheim Spa. in Chile. “We have analysed the markets in Latin America very carefully. As an international trade cooperation, we must increasingly support our local partners and suppliers and help them to develop further. And that only works there if you can react and act at short notice and in a way that is adapted to the local environment,” says Wolfgang Menges, Managing Director Purchasing and Finance at ATR International AG.
From the beginning of April 2020 onwards, IBD’s CEO Guido Goyeneche (48) will be in charge of the strategic and conceptual work involved in expanding ATR’s business activities. ATR’s strategic aim is to grow in the whole of Latin America, with the larger countries being the initial priority. Identifying and acquiring new shareholders is thus just as much a part of Goyeneche’s and his team’s area of responsibility as actively overseeing the onboarding process.
Relationship management between the regional ATR shareholders and the parts suppliers is another key focus. The same goes for the expansion of services and support, the access to technical data and the launch of joint initiatives. After all, this not only speeds up response times, but the support of all parties is directly geared towards local market requirements. “I am looking forward to the cooperation. In close coordination with our colleagues at ATR, we will be able to profitably combine the advantages of an experienced, global trade cooperation and local implementation,” says Goyeneche.
With a population of around 650 million, Latin America is a huge market, and the automotive industry is stepping on the gas. The Economist reports that Latin America will be the region with the strongest growth rate in sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in 2019 (source: The Economist Intelligence Unit). This is, of course, excellent news for the workshop and spare parts market because cars need to be repaired. The flip side is that the markets in the individual countries can be very heterogeneous in terms of structure, distribution strategy, vehicle fleet, logistics, IT and training.