Move news
17 June 2008 PARTS distributor FPS has resigned its membership of the pan-European trading alliance ATR, just weeks after fellow UK company Euro Car Parts joined.
“FPS has been a member of ATR since 2004 at which time ATR, outside of its founding country of Germany, had one member in each country,” said FPS managing director Neil Davis. “This was important due to the unique position of FPS in the UK supply ch
/> “In recent years, ATR has changed this policy, appointing more than one member in certain European markets, including the
/> “FPS has therefore decided it is no longer appropriate for it to be a member of ATR and has given ATR notice of its resignation.” Neil said the move would have “no impact” on its business in the
/> Euro Car Parts announced it was joining ATR on May 15th at a special launch event at the company’s headquarters in Wemb
/> ECP director David Bevan said membership of ATR would mean the company was in a “better position for buying and getting the best pricing structure meaning savings can be passed on to customersR
/> A statement from Euro Car Parts this week said the decision by FPS to leave ATR was “difficult to understand”. It said that although ECP and FPS were both successful companies, they were “not direct competitors” in the parts mar
/> “There are several examples of ATR having more than one member per country, most notably in Germany with three very large ATR members, Austria with two members and Ukraine with two memb
/> “In each of these countries, the members’ geographical territories overlap. All of these arrangements pre-date FPS joining ATR in 2004.