Jobber News Executive Outlook: Shiva Bhardwaj

We reached out to a number of leaders and executives from the supply chain to jobber stores and asked them to highlight how business will change in the year ahead, what the biggest challenge for the industry is moving forward and what they see as the top opportunity in 2022. We will present their answers in alphabetical order over the coming weeks…

You can view the full feature in our January 2022 issue.

Shiva Bhardwaj, Founder, CEO | Pitstop

The major impacts today to the automotive aftermarket are related to shortages in new vehicles (due to supply chain issues around silicon chips). This is causing the used vehicle market to inflate drastically.

As a result, the repair and service of vehicles will increase as everyone will keep their vehicles on the road for longer periods of time. For example, rental car companies had 80 per cent of their fleet as new vehicles — that has now flipped to only 40 per cent because of this change.

Getting access to components and parts may be limited because of the supply chain shortages that we are experiencing. It doesn’t seem like these shortages will be alleviated quickly and so companies will need to be able to cope with high demand and low supply.

Getting access to inventory on products you sell will be critical until things normalize which could take six months or longer.

The biggest opportunity is preparing for electrification. Today, electric vehicle volumes are relatively low. However, every major OEM has announced a lineup of EVs that will hit the road in the coming years. Investing the time and resources in being EV-ready will enable jobbers to carve their niche in a new and developing market. The EV market will grow exponentially and could change the entire way you generate profits in 5 years.