20 years of AAMPACT - Time is flying

Has it been that long already? At least following the calendar. 20 years ago, on July, 1st 2002, to be precise, the association representing the interests of car parts manufacturers and automotive suppliers in the Independent Aftermarket was founded under the name VREI (Verein Freier Ersatzteilemarkt). The task, then as now, was the same: to work together on solutions and answers to the challenges of the future.

The future has come and with it more and more internationality. For some years now, we have been called AAMPACT, The Independent Automotive Aftermarket Association. AAMPACT itself stands for "Automotive Aftermarket Manufacturers Pact". (www.aampact.com)

The challenging tasks in the independent aftermarket have changed, some have been successfully mastered, others remained and many new ones did come up. Transformation, shortage of skilled workers, talent search, industry attractiveness, technology change, digitalization, market consolidation, E-commerce, are the current keywords. What remains unchanged is the dedicated commitment to fair and functioning competition in the automotive aftermarket, between the vehicle manufacturers with their service networks and the Independent Aftermarket with its many thousands of players. This competition ensures affordable mobility for motorists today and in the future, and AAMPACT and its 52 member companies, all leading parts manufacturers, renown suppliers to the automotive industry and at the same time strong players with their own brand in the Independent Aftermarket, remain strongly committed to this.

On the eve of the General Assembly in Frankfurt, the member companies, Steering Committee and Management, colleague associations and long-time companions came together for a celebration of the anniversary and looked back in relaxed atmosphere on the road travelled together in the past 20 years.

At the General Meeting on the next morning, the focus was once again on the future. Alexander Brenner, partner at the Boston Consulting Group, gave an interesting keynote on the current situation. "Navigating through the perfect storm and not missing a good crisis to overtake".

The Automechanika review by Messe Frankfurt, the current AAMPACT activities in the various working groups and in the two industry initiatives "my-cardictionary.com” and "Qualität ist Mehrwert”, made up the first part of the meeting. The main topics at "NAAG" (New Automotive Aftermarket Generation), CLEPA's report on current regulatory progress in Brussels, the development of CARUSO, also in the “Mobility Data Space”, Autowerkstatt 4.0 and the current opinion of the European Court of Justice regarding the extraordinary price increases for repair and maintenance data from PSA, presented by Ralf Pelkmann, as President of ADPA, completed the comprehensive meeting programme.

Enrico Manuele, Managing Director Aftermarket of Robert Bosch GmbH, was elected as successor to Manfred Baden in the Steering Committee of AAMPACT. Manfred Baden took over other management responsibilities at Bosch.

AAMPACT e.V. and all member companies are tackling the upcoming tasks of our industry with unchanged great commitment. Always in the interest of fair and functioning competition in the Automotive Aftermarket.

Next year's two General Meetings will be held on May 12th, and November, 10th 2023.

All presentations of the members' meeting are available for download in the members' area.

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