Kia is in the process of transferring its aftermarket parts operation in the UK from Fradley (near Lichfield) to join Hyundai at a new 19,500m2 distribution warehouse in Tamworth in the Midlands. Full transfer will be completed on May 5th this year.
The new £32m ($46.7m) facility is managed by Mobis (the parts and service arms of the Hyundai-Kia Group) and was developed by Gazeley, a warehousing provider. It will hold five months worth of Kia inventory including 240,000 product lines and provide next day delivery to Kia’s 140 dealers.
Martin James, Mobis’ General Manager at the Tamworth facility, told Automotive Logistics that Unipart is providing 3PL support for Mobis and subcontracting the transport of the parts to both Hyundai and Kia’s dealer network. Unipart is also taking on the warehouse staff from Kia’s Lichfield site from Caterpillar Logistics and integrating them into the Tamworth site.
Mobis opened the UK parts operation in September last year and Hyundai and Kia are now taking advantage of the new site to improve the inventory offering for the UK market.
Kia spokesman Steve Kitson said that one of the main reasons for the move is improvement of service: “Dealers want next day delivery to get cars back to customers more quickly without holding huge stocks of parts and we want to improve that service to the network and our customers.”
Kia is seeing growth in UK sales and now selling 30,000 vehicles a year ,according to Kitson. The company offers an extended warranty which means increased demand on the dealer service.
"Moving to the Mobis UK parts facility will provide our dealer network with greatly improved levels of inventory along with the latest in system and inventory management technology, meaning that our customers will always get the best levels of service that we can physically offer," said Hamish McCowan, After Sales And Logistics Director, Kia Motors UK.
