HELLA expands e-commerce activities in the aftermarket

Warsaw/Lippstadt, 12 October 2016. HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co., a globally leading automotive supplier and one of the largest aftermarket distribution organisations for spare vehicle parts, wholesale and garage equipment in Europe, will further expand its e-commerce activities in the aftermarket business. By taking over Poland’s leading online shop of vehicle spare parts, iParts, HELLA intends to strengthen its proprietary e-commerce activities and accelerate its future expansion. The focus will originally be on the northern and eastern European region.

"The acquisition of iParts has given us access to a powerful and therefore highly attractive e-commerce platform for the vehicle spare parts aftermarket," says Dr. Rolf Breidenbach, CEO of HELLA. "It marks an important step into the future since the internet will further gain in importance as a distribution channel in the aftermarket."

Warsaw-based iParts is the leading online shop for vehicle spare parts in Poland. Founded six years ago, the start-up currently offers over two million vehicle spare parts in its online shop (www.iParts.pl and further company owned domains) with over 150,000 registered users and over half a million visits per month. The company generated annual revenues in the lower to mid single-digit million range, most of which currently come from the B2C business with end users.

"We are very enthusiastic about our partnership with Hella. We are convinced this cooperation will help us to continue our growth on the polish market, provide an ultimate service for our customers and enhance relations with our present partners", says Piotr Wrzesniewski co-founder of iParts.

HELLA itself has been operating in the Polish online distribution since 2015 with its UCANDO (www.ucando.pl) brand that very quickly enjoyed strong brand recognition and a broad market penetration. The iParts acquisition is expected to raise technological synergies and accelerate future growth. The two strong online brands UCANDO and iParts will therefore both be continued in order to systematically address specific customer segments and further broaden the overall customer approach.