Toronto, Ontario — October 11, 2018 — Last Wednesday, more than 200 of the automotive aftermarket’s key influencers headed to LKQ’s new Toronto East location for the chance to get a peek inside the state-of-the-art facility. For the executive team, however, the celebration was about far more than showing off the company’s latest infrastructural investment.
“Its a great day for us,” said Derek Willshire. “We have VIPs from different levels of the industry, including insurance partners and executives, representatives from banners and MSOs, and shop-owners.”
While LKQ had previously serviced the Greater Toronto Area and the surrounding Golden Horseshoe out of their Brampton-based facility, the leadership team strongly believed that the Toronto East would provide LKQ with a tremendous growth opportunity.
“We’ve made a big investment here. We have increased our costs by 25 percent, but we haven’t increased our revenue by 25 percent, but this is about the long-term. At the end-of-the-day, we know that our revenue will grow because we will be able to out-service our competitors.” said Justin Jude, senior vice president of wholesale operations.
“As the GTA and Golden Horseshoe region in general grows, traffic congestion is becoming an increasing problem. By being able to service the region more efficiently, we can help reduce a collision repair shops’ overall cycle time.”
The facility’s construction is part of a broader strategic investment plan aimed at regions across Canada and the United States.
“When they are repairing cars, collision repair facilities want to receive them in a timely manner. In densely populated areas like the GTA, that is a challenge,” said Terry Fortner, vice president of insurance, sales and marketing.
“Unfortunately, a drone cannot deliver a fender – at least not yet, In the meantime, LKQ is committed to investing in facilities capable of servicing regions as efficiently as possible. We are building more facilities like this one, and are developing a proprietary mapping technology for our delivery vehicles.”
LKQ is a leading provider of alternative and specialty parts to repair and accessorize automobiles and other vehicles. Offering customers a broad range of replacement systems, components, equipment and parts to repair and accessorize automobiles, trucks, and recreational and performance vehicles, the company has nearly 1,500 operating locations in over 20 countries worldwide.
The teams at many of these locations are involved in a variety of community outreach efforts, from donating time and materials to local fire and police departments to conduct training, to working with community colleges to provide vehicle repair training opportunities. For more information, visit lkqcanada.ca.
