Parts wholesaler looking to partner with local SMEs

 By Eric Balaria

AN automotive parts wholesaler is looking to establish partnerships with local SMEs in the distribution of the automotive parts in the country.

Papua New Guinea registered company, Jed Enterprises, is offering  automotive parts packages worth K250,000 to individuals and businesses in the SME sector who are interested to be become resellers and suppliers of genuine Toyota parts.

Chairman Edward Lupton said they are trying to bring out the concept to local SME owners while targeting the landowner companies that were affiliated with the mining sector.

“Our finance is coming onshore and we are looking at securing a reseller base in Papua New Guinea,” he said.

“This is a new concept in the country and we are very mindful of the fact that SMEs are often hard to start up, let alone carry on financially.

“However, we want to make it defined so that when a new client makes an approach we send a proposal to them that outlines our requirements.” Lupton said one of the main requirements would be that clients ensured their businesses were financially approved by any preferred finance institutions.

He said the SME must be able to service the lending requirements for these institutions.

However he said one of the good things about this is that the client was not expected to have any experience in automotive parts.

“It would be an advantage but not necessarily required as we would be providing training through support staff,” Lupton said.

“We would provide real time remote support. This means that if the reseller has difficulty identifying a certain automotive part, we would, through the use of web cameras be able to identify that part instantly with the help of our support staff,” he said.

Lutpon said they would not be funding the local businesses but only provide the autoparts packages for the successful clients to work on. We will be expecting the clients to set up at their own location where they will run their own businesses and generate their own economy,” he said.

“Jed will only give a little expertise at the back end of their business.”

Lupton said the autoparts starter package would include an operationally equipped 20ft container warehouse that can be shipped and a stocked inventory with fast moving four wheel drive and light commercial parts.