GAYDONS MOTOR SPARES SA: Full Speed Ahead for Gaydons Motor Spares

Since 1986, GMS has established itself as one of South Africa’s leading independent motor spares distributors. GMS’ primary focus is on ensuring quality and reliability, at the right price, while concentrating on service excellence. This has kept GMS at the top of the motor industry market. The head office in Durban, together with branches in Johannesburg, ensures the company can offer a distribution network spanning all corners of Southern Africa, as well as being the perfect gateway to the rest of the continent.

This influence is not limited to Africa, elaborates Managing Director, Imthiaz Ahmed Bassa. “GMS has also used its vast capabilities as a pioneering trailblazer to take it where very few before have succeeded in this most lucrative industry.

“We are the largest leading independent wholesaler in South Africa,” Bassa relates firstly, “with a significant staff complement, which ensures an efficient and hassle-free order and delivery service to other wholesalers, retailers and workshops. The combined experience of the staff complement exceeds a millennium, which underpins GMS’ strong heritage that it has built up.”

This has been affirmed by the appointment of Bassa as MD; whose roots in the industry go way back to his tender age of nine years when he was already retailing spares over the counter. Bassa has extensive experience in both the automotive industry and FMCG markets. The energy and vision from the modest 47-year-old is motivating, says Rehman Kajee, Head of Marketing and Franchising at GMS. Bassa maintains that success lies in the commitment and dedication of his team to provide an efficient service in a customer centric environment, leading to positive results in a demanding industry.

QUALITY AND PRICING ABOVE ALL

“We were inspired to lay foundations with foreign suppliers, way back in the 1980s and we were in fact the first importers in South Africa.” This was a highly informative experience, Kajee says. “This was hugely enlightening, and from it we learned the sheer value of knowing exactly who we were ordering from, and the impact on quality that this can have. The relationships that were established 30 years ago still continue up to today.

“To avoid any potential compromise on standards we have since established the technical development to source directly from these manufacturers exactly what the industry currently demands, based on the high-quality standards that we demand, rather than what people may decide to provide us with. This is the most important process and is based on our company’s moto ‘Quality starts and stops here’.”

Shifting focus to local operations, Kajee details to us the major change has just taken place in GMS’s South African operations. “We’ve recently moved offices,” he reveals, “from Rosettenville in Johannesburg to Maraisburg. We have been in Rosettenville since our inception, but the environment has changed quite notably and we were no longer finding it conducive to our own progress and growth. We are now in a prestigious property in Maraisburg – which boasts A-class offices together with an efficient warehouse which reinforces Bassa’s vision of striving to reach new heights.

GMS has set itself a clear primary focus: the very essence of quality and reliability, offered at the right price, and all backed by service excellence. Kajee boils this down even further, clarifying that there are two factors above all which define the company’s central ethos. “Quality and pricing. We offer the right product, best in quality, at an affordable price, and this is how we capitalise on our market share.”

The company stocks a wide range of local and house brands. Kajee says that due to high volumes of products purchased, the company is able negotiate with suppliers to obtain the most competitive pricing by cutting out the middleman.

Crucially, it also allows GMS to ensure that it always has stock available, either locally produced and, where required, supplemented by approved global suppliers.

“Our competitive advantage in this field is operational excellence – the process where we concentrate on combining our skills and assets into a personalised service, aimed at meeting all our customer’s individual needs. This allows us to deliver the highest levels of service whilst maintaining our cost competitiveness.

BIG INDUSTRY PLANS

The South African Automotive Master Plan [SAAM] 2021 – 2035 strives to see the automotive industry growing from 600,000 to 1.4 million vehicles a year in production. This alone will drive demand as more vehicles can only equate to a greater need of replacement parts.

Crucially, the localisation which informs the very essence of GMS’s current and future operations has also been pegged as a significant opportunity to transform the automotive sector, while facilitating the entry of BEE participants in its supply chain.

“The need for localisation is an essential ingredient in transforming the domestic automotive sector,” confirmed Simon Woodward, automotive sector head at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). “It is a massive opportunity to support black-owned automotive suppliers in building their businesses in the industry, and then potentially partnering with leading global suppliers. It will help drive transformation and create jobs.”

“Without localisation, we’re going to struggle to remain competitive,” added Andrew Kirby, president and CEO at Toyota South Africa Motors Limited.

GMS embodies this perfect balance between prioritising local and offering the best of the rest of the world in its exhaustive range of brands. This GMS brand itself has gone on over the years to successfully capture a large share of the market, offering high standards of quality at affordable prices, Kajee outlines. “The vast GMS product range includes various cleaning materials and chemicals, under-carriage parts, brake parts, engine overhaul spares, clutch overhaul spares, accessories and lubricants.”

DRIVING PROGRESS

Next to the Bremskraft premium brake pads and Petromin oil, manufactured in Saudi Arabia, are three more of the leading South African auto products: Slik X Motor Oil, a GMS own brand of engine oil that has taken the industry by storm, HK filters and Spitzen shock absorbers, giving increased braking efficiency and reduced risk of skidding in the wet.

“The Slik X lubricants, house brand was established by late Director Mr Ebrahim Amod Badroodeen 18 years ago when he identified a gap in the market. The brand has grown significantly over the years with the increase in its product range over the automotive and consumable industries under the watchful eye of our MD.”

Kajee was also excited to mention the launch of a new product line of additives, engine and fuel cleaning agents and car care products called BOOST, which enhances the performance of motor vehicles, prolongs the life of components and reduces emissions.

In the form of Inkosi Auto Parts, GMS seized upon the opportunities afforded by the art of franchising in order to give the truly personalised, tailored service, and replicate the proven recipe that has brought the franchise model success in local and further afield territories. “We have relaunched the concept after the return of Bassa, who is a keen believer in promoting the Inkosi Auto Parts franchise offering, which was launched 15 years ago and is currently the most affordable franchise on the market,” says Kajee of the self-styled ‘King of Auto Parts’.

“With Inkosi our aim is to offer as much support to all our franchisees as possible and with the backing of GMS it makes it possible to pass on massive savings to our franchisees, helping their businesses to flourish with the lowest possible capital investment. We strive to provide products that combine quality and variety with value pricing, coupled with unmatched service excellence.

“We pride ourselves, too, on being the only franchise which offers store-specific advertising, that speaks directly to the market where that specific store is located. There is no other brand that does this.”        

With the GMS name known nationally and the business gaining recognition from the likes of the Automechanika, South Africa’s leading international trade fair for the automotive service industry, GMS is on the road to an even greater footprint and further dominance within the industry, Kajee feels.

“Simply put, we link strategy, people and process to deliver operational excellence within the wholesale motor industry. With the continued growth in customer demand and the competitive environment becoming ever fiercer, offering great and excellent customer-service is at the heart of all we do, helping us to dominate our competitors well into the future.”