At the start of the CARUSO Partner Connect 2018 in Cologne, we were able to welcome three new shareholders: Mobivia, the leading business providing multi-brand vehicle servicing and parts in Europe as well as a key player in the area of new mobilities, along with WM SE (Wessels + Müller), one of Europe’s leading wholesaler of automotive parts, accessories, tires and workshop equipment as well as LKQ Corporation, a leading provider of alternative and specialty parts to repair and accessorize automobiles and other vehicles from the USA. “This means that CARUSO – only 8 months after its launch – already has 9 shareholders on board; this is an excellent development,” explained our Managing Director Alexander Haid. Currently, CARUSO is under discussion about a participation with other major players on the manufacturer and on the mobility services side.
LKQ Corporation is one of the leading suppliers in the global automotive aftermarket with offices in North America, Europe and Taiwan. With the accession of LKQ, a US Fortune 500 company to the CARUSO data marketplace, another important partner from the German car parts trade at CARUSO is on board: At the end of May 2018, LKQ completed the acquisition of Stahlgruber, one of Europe’s leading wholesaler of automotive parts, accessories and workshop equipment. Mobivia is at the forefront of automotive repair and maintenance in Europe, with over 2,050 workshops and retail outlets under its own brands (among others Norauto, A.T.U, Midas or Carter-Cash). Mobivia is also recognized as the leading player in new mobility, through its business accelerator Via ID, which supports with a long-term view projects in the field of new mobilities: smart, sustainable and daily mobilities. With the WM SE group of companies, which only two years ago took over their big competitor Trost, another heavyweight from the European spare parts trade participates in Caruso GmbH.
On the occasion of the recent additions, Alex once again explained the shareholder model of CARUSO:
“Each partner can decide whether he also wants to become a shareholder. In this role, he can influence the fortunes of CARUSO, so he has a say in the business model or strategic goals. This structure distinguishes us from all other existing marketplaces. In addition, Caruso GmbH is profit-oriented. It does not pay a dividend to the shareholders, but the profits are fully incorporated into the further development of the marketplace. As a result, CARUSO will continue to expand the functionality of its data marketplace and develop it according to the needs of its partners”.
CARUSO’s vision is to create a neutral, open and secure data marketplace for all past and future players in the mobility data & service market as digitalisation progresses. CARUSO thus enables a complete redesign of business processes and a contemporary form of value creation. Data providers can offer their data simultaneously to a large number of interested parties in a protected and open environment based on their own business models. Data users get faster and easier access to data from multiple vendors, enabling them to develop or improve their own mobility services.
“Through our investment in CARUSO, we see two opportunities: to further consolidate our position in the industry’s most important market where around 70 percent of all aftermarket sales are generated. At the same time, of course, we are very interested in finding new partners and developing business models that focus on data. We are very excited to be part of the CARUSO family and look forward to working with them.”
Dominick P. ZarconeCEO - LKQ
“Access to quality automotive technical information, through an independent and neutral open platform, is a requirement from Mobivia and its brands, for the benefit of our customers. We support CARUSO which we see as an advocate for a free and self-regulating data market. Therefore, CARUSO is, because of its technology, an efficient market place that will contribute to data standardization and will facilitate their exchange and use.”
Olivier MélisDeputy Managing Director - Mobivia
“In the partnership with CARUSO, we see the strategic opportunity to actively shape the European data marketplace and the digitization of the automotive aftermarket. On the other hand, we also want to take advantage of all the opportunities for our own business that CARUSO offers by trading data and mobility services in order to be even better prepared for the market requirements of tomorrow.”
Frank SchröderCEO - WM SE