Interview with President Satwinder Mangat, Part 2

In January, we published Part 1 of our interview with ALLDATA President Satwinder Mangat, which featured a look back at 2022 highlights as well as the trends and technologies affecting the repair industry in 2023.

This month, he responds to questions about ALLDATA’s plans for international growth.

What are the main differences between the repair industry in the U.S. and other countries?

One major difference is that Europe is ahead of the U.S. in transitioning to electric vehicles, where EVs account for about 11% of total passenger vehicle sales. Shops there are already dealing with the ramifications of those new technologies in the repair market. In fact, EVs reached a 10% global market share for the first time in 2022.

By comparison, last year’s gas hikes ignited an EV purchasing surge here in the U.S. Even with the increased demand, EV market share in the U.S. was just 5.6% for 2022. We’ll have to see how much supply chain delays and high interest rates will slow purchases in 2023.

At a high level, think, “a car is a car.” Similar components. Similar technology. Similar parts. It may have the steering on the left or the steering on the right.

Here in the U.S., we have repair “shops.” In Europe, they call them “workshops” or “garages.”  But we’re still doing the same thing, right? There’s not much of a difference between the U.S. and other markets when you talk about diagnosing and repairing the car. The tools are the same. The materials are the same.

In the U.S., we provide OEM information directly to the shops through our flagship products, ALLDATA Repair and ALLDATA Collision.

In 2013, when we first launched in Europe, shops there were getting most of their repair information from parts suppliers and scan tool companies. They would buy a part and get the repair information for that particular part. So they were not getting it directly from the OEMs. That’s changing now.

As vehicles become more complex, European workshops are recognizing that what they’re getting from the parts supplier is not complete information, which leaves them open to liability.

That’s where ALLDATA comes in, as the leading provider for unedited OEM information directly from the manufacturers.

Now 60% of our customers in Europe are buying directly from ALLDATA. They believe in our brand and they trust the data we provide. I am confident that our customer base in Europe and the U.K will continue to grow.

What are ALLDATA’s plans for Europe?

In the U.S., ALLDATA is the number one choice for OEM repair information. In Europe, we already have a strong foothold and are still growing. For 2023, we are putting additional emphasis on Germany and the U.K.

We already have 10,000-plus customers in Germany, where the total market is around 50,000 shops. So we’ve made good inroads, but it’s still early on.

Next year, our focus in Europe is the United Kingdom. The U.K. has a similar market to Germany, also around 50,000 workshops. We just hired a new sales director there and a new sales team, all top performers. I feel like the U.K. market will grow pretty rapidly.

We currently have customers in 30 countries. My next goal, once the U.K. is ramped up, is to determine what other countries in Europe – along with Germany and the U.K. – need ALLDATA support. We also plan to introduce our DIY product in Europe.

Back to North America, what’s ALLDATA’s focus for Canada and Mexico?

Canada is an important market, making up about 10% of our total customer base. One challenge is that we don’t have a French language version yet, but it’s on the development list.

In Mexico, we’re just getting started, so we’re still defining our strategy, which will include leveraging our enterprise relationship with AutoZone.

AutoZone’s commercial market is growing rapidly in Mexico. It’s high on the priority list to grow our business in Mexico by providing these shops with the latest OEM repair information – direct from the factory – and other workflow solutions.

The biggest issue with Mexico has been piracy and software sharing. Some shops are even using discs from our older systems.

Which other countries are on ALLDATA’s radar?

The next frontier for ALLDATA is Australia and New Zealand. There are 40,000 shops in Australia and 10,000 in New Zealand. We’ll be providing OEM information for only the top 10 models sold there, which make up 99% of market share. It may take multiple years to finalize the contracts, but we’re excited to bring ALLDATA to shops in those countries.

Brazil is another opportunity. AutoZone currently has 76 stores there now, and that number will grow in a few years. I want to make sure ALLDATA is successful in Mexico first, so we can potentially apply a similar model in Brazil.

We’re also negotiating licenses and contracts for Japan. Since they already have access to information on Japanese brands, they just need the three major U.S. automakers from ALLDATA: General Motors, Stellantis (formerly Chrysler), and Ford Motor Company.