The 2014 China Automobile Aftermarket Forum is held?in Anting town of Shanghai’s Jiading district.

The 2014 China Automobile Aftermarket Forum was held recently in Anting town of Shanghai’s Jiading district. It was sponsored by the China Chain Operation Association, and nearly 400 people from more than 300 companies attended the forum.

Pei Liang, secretary-general of the association, said that chain operations are scattered on a small scale at the moment, because a sustainable and reproducible single-shop profit model hasn’t been built. Employee turnover is high and customer satisfaction is at a low level. The association has been working to help the aftermarket grow and find major problems to foster a healthy development. Meanwhile, the association hoped to make a new start for the auto aftermarket and develop Anting into a leader in the auto industry and a base for talent, brand and services.

A 2013 report on China’s automobile aftermarket chain-store operations showed that China’s car number has been growing rapidly. It reached 140 million in 2013, and the aftermarket is worth 500 billion yuan. However, the aftermarket has a relatively low concentration rate. Nearly 40 percent of enterprises that participated in the research had annual sales of less than 50 million yuan each, with the biggest at 500 million yuan, while companies in the US automotive aftermarket had annual sales reach $8.6 billion.

Local companies need to establish their brand, set up a chain operation and get more specialized to achieve success in the automotive aftermarket.

Auto aftermarket mainly covers auto parts and automotive supplies, vehicle maintenance, repairs and renovations. The member structure in the China Chain Operation Association reflects that development of the aftermarket chain operation has lagged behind and that there’s huge space for market development.

After 13 years of development, the Shanghai International Automobile City has transformed itself into a comprehensive auto facility featuring automobile manufacturing, trade, education and training, expo and racing. In 2013, Anting realized above-scale industrial output value of 104.8 billion yuan (excluding Shanghai Volkswagen), and raked in 12.5 billion yuan in general financial revenue. However, there are still bottlenecks in the system, namely, restraints on land resources, energy conservation and emission reduction, and population regulation.

At the meeting, leaders in the auto aftermarket, such as Sun Flower Investment, Stahlgruber Trading (Shanghai) and Honeywell International, gave speeches on the overall development of China’s auto aftermarket, human resource management, high-end auto maintenance, and opportunities in auto service business brought by Internet technology.

Edited by Lin Hong and Nelly Min