When the Panama Canal was constructed roughly 100 years ago, it paved the way for this Latin American country to become a commercial hub by connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This year’s Latin Auto Parts Expo served a similar function last month – serving as a focal point for auto parts trade in the region by offering buyers and exhibitors an opportunity to connect at the inaugural event.
Held July 9-11 at the Atlapa Convention Center in Panama City, the convention is owned by Latin Expo Group LLC, headquartered in Miami with an office in Panama. The show attracted nearly 200 exhibitors and buyers from throughout the region, including Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, the Caribbean Islands and elsewhere. The Auto Care Association, formerly the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), served as a partner for the event attracting its U.S.-company members to an Auto Care Pavilion at the Expo.
Castrillon says the show is a prime example of what the association is doing to help identify markets and potential markets for its U.S. members who want to expand internationally. “To do that effectively we really need to have an international footprint,” he said. “It’s tough to get partners and potential partners excited about our members if they haven’t heard of the association.”
Castrillon said the Auto Care Association’s executive committee identified Latin America as one of two areas of the world that they wanted to focus on. China would be the other.
“As more and more people are driving cars there, and China feels the global growth, our members want to know what role we can play in building up the Chinese aftermarket,” he said. “(Members) really want market intelligence. If you want to develop an export plan you have to know which markets to target, what the vehicle footprint looks like. If your parts don’t fit the vehicles in a particular market, that’s not a good export market for you.”
Roughly 50 members of the Auto Care Association took part in the Latin Auto Parts Expo to try to reach buyers in this emerging parts market.
“In the states it’s been lost for years now, but in Latin America there are a lot of family-owned jobber stores that are really big that we could do a lot of good business with,” says Sastre.
Daniel Moroles, sales & market development manager with the Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance, echoed this sentiment. He says mom-and-pop locations in Latin America are more common, and many of them are unfamiliar with the program group concept as a business strategy.
Moroles and Kristel Perry, marketing services coordinator for the Alliance, conducted a seminar during the event to help
“It’s a really new concept in this area, as it was in Mexico a few years back,” Moroles said, adding that his group presently has 12 members in Mexico. “It’s gaining a lot of momentum in Mexico and we expect the same thing to happen here.” Latin America has not yet seen a lot of large chain stores, but Moroles expects that to change, just as it did in Mexico a decade or so ago.
Grissel De La Espriella, regional sales manager for Latin America & the Caribbean for A/C parts supplier OMEGA Environmental Technologies, considered the show a success in its first year.
“We’ve been quite surprised how many prospects we’ve had. In the first two days we were busy throughout the day. We have at least 50 prospects we’ll be taking home to follow up on,” she said. Based in Irving, Texas, OMEGA produces compressors, evaporators, and condensers, among other items, that drew a lot of interest at the show from buyers in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Guatemala.
“It’s been good seeing existing customers again, and putting a face to customers we’ve been dealing with in email or by phone,” said De La Espriella.
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