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Letter to the Editor

URG and Keystone Automotive Industries Announce New Partnership

“Our new partnership with Keystone Automotive Industries will make it possible for URG members to create a ‘one stop shop’ for their customers when it comes to providing a full range of automotive repair and replacement parts,” said Michelle Alexander, director of the URG Board. “This creates another benefit of URG membership, and we are excited about the potential this alliance brings to the automotive recycling industry. We think it is going to help ‘level the playing field’ for our independent automotive recyclers as they compete with the consolidators in this industry. ”

According to URG manager Tom Denton, owner of Knox Auto Parts in Knoxville, Tennessee, “The bottom line is that this partnership brings together used parts suppliers (URG members) with a new and recycled parts supplier (Keystone Automotive) in a way that will allow a full product line of automotive parts to be sold to our customers. The people who buy from us are the collision repair/body shop industry, including those direct repair facilities acting on behalf of the auto insurance industry.”

Christopher Northup, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Keystone Automotive Industries, commented, “This is really an alliance of business leaders in their respective fields. There has been a lot of maturity developing in the automotive repair market the last 10 to 15 years, and it has changed the landscape of the whole industry. Consumers, and their insurers, want their cars repaired in a high quality manner, but cost effectively too. Now two of the most respected names in the business are working together in order to make that happen.”

“At Keystone, we see this as a great opportunity,” Northup continued. “Everyone involved is going to benefit. This isn’t just about selling parts either. We see other ways to work together. For Instance, we will be looking to URG members to provide us with new sources of parts for our remanufacturing business, especially plastic bumpers and aluminum wheels.”

Launch plans are underway, and in the future it is anticipated that the applicable automotive part elements of the Keystone Automotive Industries parts inventory will eventually become integrated with URGNet. This will make it available to the URG members serving their collision repair industry customers.

There are clear advantages to URG members, explained Denton. “URG consolidates our buying power tremendously, and the prices we are able to get through them will be much better than we could do on our own as independent operators. We are in direct competition with a large organization, so utilizing the economies of scale that this new partnership will make possible is very important. Another benefit that URG members are going to gain from is the marketing power that we will now have, which is national in scope, instead of being limited to whatever it is that we could do in our own local markets.”

Keystone Automotive Industries brings a comprehensive line of new and remanufactured automotive parts into this partnership. Its principal product lines are as follows: New bumpers and reinforcement bars; remanufactured O.E.M. bumpers and bumper covers, new replacement body panels, new radiators and condensers, replacement lighting windshields, side and rear; auto glass; autobody supplies; rust repair panels for classic cars and trucks; and remanufactured OEM alloy wheels.

Since 1947 Keystone has been the nation’s largest supplier of new and remanufactured collision repair parts. With over 130 distribution and service centers Keystone provides products and services to the nationwide community of collision repair specialists.

United Recyclers Group, LLC is a partnership of over 330 industry leading auto recyclers that work together to improve and modernize the automotive recycling industry. Changes they have made include developing their own inventory management system, Pinnacle; creating a buying cooperative; offering group marketing options; and forming the Premium Recycled Parts Program.

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