...thinking outside of the box and adapting on the fly, so when the industry throws Monteleone a curve, he must respond quickly and definitively.
On pace to do $31 million in wholesale parts sales this year, Monteleone admitted problems within the supply chain have impacted his business tremendously.
“We’re feeling it and the shops are definitely feeling it even more,” he said. “Right now, my repair fill rate off-the-shelf is 70%, which is not horrible. Our pre-pandemic numbers were around 85% with our same-day at 94%. We’re doing a lot more major repairs because people are not buying new vehicles during the pandemic, and the availability of parts has been an ongoing concern.”
To get the parts they need for their in-house repairs as well as for their wholesale clients, Monteleone’s parts managers have had to hustle and leverage relationships to succeed.
“My parts people are very active, going dealer-to-dealer or getting the manufacturers to approve the use of aftermarket parts on warrantied repairs," Monteleone said. "We’re winning doing it that way, but I always tell my parts managers that they have to be on their toes and be really, really focused on their work in process.”
With his OEs' warehouses located in Dallas---4.5 hours away by car---Monteleone obviously can’t rely on them to complete his parts orders. But luckily there are several competing dealerships selling the same brands in close proximity, he said.
“We source them for anything we don’t have on-hand and when we recondition used cars, we always now opt mainly for aftermarket parts on those jobs.”
Acquiring parts from the competition means...
Ed Attanasio