Thornhill Ontario–May 13 2010–LKQ-Keystone proudly showed off their brand new Brampton store last night. The well-attended event played host to guests from the aftermarket auto recycling refinish and collision repair industries.
Aside from the BBQ dinner DJ and mini-trade show attendees were also treated to car show featuring quite a wide selection of classic and custom vehicles. Take a look at some of the sights from the evening:
LKQ is one of North America’s leading suppliers of alternative auto and truck repair products. They provide recycled remanufactured and reconditioned auto parts to the collision and mechanical repair industries and through its Keystone division LKQ supplies aftermarket replacement parts and paint body and equipment products.
Their market position meant that LKQ-Keystone could weather the economic recession rather well and could move forward with plans to build their new state-of-the-art facility in the heart of the commercial business district in Brampton Ontario.
The Brampton store is LKQ’s sixth facility in the Ontario market. The official opening was May 12 2010 but operations have been in full swing since late November 2009. They’ve spent the last six months integrating their aftermarket computer systems so they are in sync with the rest of the company.
“Recognizing the Greater Toronto Area as the most ideal location was important to us because it would allow us maximum coverage in the city and better improve service for our customers” said Phil St. Pierre regional manager.
The facility is 75000 sq. ft. with 28 ft. high ceilings. The building houses millions of aftermarket and salvage parts and equipment including remanufactured bumpers and wheels lighting assemblies fenders cooling products PBE supplies and LKQ-Keystone’s exclusive Platinum Plus line of premium aftermarket parts.
As the latest facility to carry the LKQ name the building uses the most up-to-date technology to improve efficiency and the health and safety of the staff. For example a wire-guided inventory picker uses wires in the floor to line up perfectly with aisles of shelves. It can then scale the shelves effortlessly to retrieve parts from high places while being handled by a trained operator who is strapped in for safety.
“Everything is fully automated with barcoding” said Susie DeSantis LKQ-Keystone Toronto general manager. “There are scanning operations throughout the facility as well.”
Using information from its previous location in Woodbridge Ontario and a long line of reputable LKQ-Keystone shops in the US the new facility has worked out some of the issues with the previous building. LKQ used established US floorplans to engineer a warehouse that maximizes productivity.
“It has certainly affected our fill rates drastically” DeSantis said. “We’re able to meet the high demands expected and it has eased the picking of orders.”
There are 10 loading docks (the previous location only had three doors) which have facilitated the speed and ease of loading both recycled and aftermarket parts into the trucks.
“Our trucks make stops twice daily across the GTA and we run almost 24 hours a day. Ultimately we want to be a one-stop-shop for our customers’ needs” DeSantis said.
Recently the Brampton facility received exciting news that LKQ-Keystone will be one of the official distributors for US muscle car products company Goodmark Industries.
When asked about the storage space for new product lines such as Goodmark parts St. Pierre said “the building was built from the centre so we could expand in either direction. Things change from week to week so quickly there’s no telling what can happen next with us here.”
In the very near future customers can look forward to visiting a new retail area in the facility. Retail sales areas have remained a focus of other LKQ-Keystone buildings and have been an important method for staying informed and in touch with customers.
The visibility and accessibility from major roads and highways undoubtedly will help the retail outlet take off and allow the Brampton location to continue promoting its core product lines and Platinum Plus parts in the Canadian market.
The new store is located at:
3485 Steeles Avenue E. Unit #2
Brampton Ontario?L6T 5W7
