JOINING TWO BURSON AUTO PARTS CULTURES

In late 2022, Burson Auto Parts welcomed two fellow team members from the company’s Thailand business to Australia

The Aussie team welcomed Burson Auto Parts Thailand Operations Support and Sourcing Manager, Tanapoj (Mok) Prasitdhivongkul (one of the first ever Thailand based company employees), who started out as a Store Manager and after four and half years was promoted to his current role.

Mok was joined by three-year Burson Auto Parts Thailand team member, Catalogue System Manager, Akkaraphat (Hand) Phisitkul, who has become an expert at updating the EzyParts catalogue and providing customer and store team cataloguing support in the region.

As both Mok and Hand have highly specialised roles within the Burson Auto Parts Thailand business, they were both selected to visit Australia to enhance their experience with detailed EzyParts training.

Mok and Hand also spent time with each Burson Auto Parts/Bapcor Trade department in order to gain a deeper understanding of the business and they also spent time with team members from Autobarn to better understand the Bapcor Retail business.

The Thai colleagues also spent time in the field, visiting stores and gaining an insight to how a Burson store operates in Australia. They also visited the Bapcor Distribution Centre and were completely impressed with the technology, operations and sheer size of the operation.

Mok also took part in the Burson Auto Parts top performing Store Managers visit to the SEMA and AAPEX trade shows in Las Vegas in early November as a reward for the major contribution that he has made to the growth of the Burson Auto Parts business in Thailand.

Burson Auto Parts Thailand has now grown to six stores, with a Head Office team of eight. The Australian company also has an International Trade Centre located in Thailand and a total of 80 employees. Burson Auto Parts/Bapcor states it remains the only Australian automotive parts business to have successfully expanded its footprint into the Asian market, noting this is something that all involved can be immensely proud of.

There are similarities between the Burson Auto Parts Thailand and Australia businesses as both are highly trade focused and both offer a just in time delivery service – something the company says has changed the auto parts purchasing game completely in that country.

The Thailand Burson Auto Parts stores are structured similarly to the Australian stores with a Store Manager, 2IC, Sales Representative, parts sales staff and drivers. Every store also has a cashier/admin person as there is a great deal of paperwork involved in running any business in Thailand.

“The scale of the Burson Auto Parts operation in