ATR (Auto-Teile-Ring, English: “Spare Parts Pool”) is the corporate umbrella of one of the world's largest independent trading cooperations for automotive

spare part A spare part, spare, service part, repair part, or replacement part, is an interchangeable part that is kept in an inventory and used for the repair or refurbishment of defective equipment/units. Spare parts are an important feature of logistic ...

s and a service center for four

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

service concepts. The headquarters of ATR is located in Denkendorf (

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

). ATR companies provide auto shops and spare parts dealers with original spare parts and garage equipment.

History

During the 1950s, a large number of major automotive spare parts dealers in Germany came together to publish a joint catalog of automotive spare parts. From the mid-1960s on, the first gas stations began selling automotive accessories: This created competition for wholesalers that had been generating high revenues through sales of accessories. For that reason, several dealers decided to combine their purchase operations. For this to occur, a joint legal form had to be created. This is how ATR GmbH came about in 1967. ATR founding members included wholesalers Auto Merkur, Auto Staiger, Matthies, Stahlgruber und Wessels. ATR is the eldest trading cooperation for automotive spare parts in Germany. Founding members

Johannes J. Matthies Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John (name), John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes (given name), Ioannes''), itself ...

GmbH & Co KG in

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and Stahlgruber GmbH in

Poing, Bavaria Poing is a municipality in the Upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg, lying east of central Munich. Geography Poing is approximately NE of Munich and is serviced by the Munich S-Bahn (S2) and MVV Bus systems. Poing has two constituent communiti ...

have remained part of ATR until today. ATR launched its private label brand Cartechnic for garage products and accessories in 1990. Today, the range includes more than 600 products. The wholesalers involved in ATR pushed on with developing a joint catalog after that, though these efforts only gained momentum with electronic data processing. The ATR partners first showcased their electronic spare parts information system ARTis at the

Automechanika Automechanika is the world's biggest trade fair for the automobile aftermarket. It is held every two years (in even years) at the Messe Frankfurt. In distinction to the Motor Show, Automechanika is open to trading visitors only. History On 20 ...

trade show in 1992. As sales and purchases of automotive spare parts and accessories in the 1990s gradually turned into a global business, ATR moved with the times and aspired an

internationalization In economics, internationalization or internationalisation is the process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization. Internationalization is a crucial strateg ...

. Its first non-German partners were French parts dealer

Groupe Laurent A group is a unit (military), military unit or a Formation (military), military formation that is most often associated with military aviation. Air and aviation groups The terms group and wing (military aviation unit), wing differ significantl ...

(1991) and Spain’s Gerstenmaier (1992). The foundation of ATR International AG in 1999 created the legal framework for the group-purchasing cooperation’s international expansion.

Facts and figures

Today, 42 partners along with 277 trading companies in 60 countries form part of ATR International AG. These include members in the USA, South America, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. ATR has now a presence on six continents. ATR partner companies employ more than 152,000 employees and operate approx. 10,000 local sales points. All in all, members of ATR International AG generated external revenues of 30.88 billion euros in 2021. ATR is one of the largest revenue generators among purchasing cooperations serving the independent automotive spare parts market globally. The non-listed AG’s 42 partners hold the company’s capital.

Garage workshops

In 2008, ATR consolidated independent garage and specialty store service concepts Meisterhaft, AC AUTO CHECK and autoPARTNER into ATR SERVICE GmbH, which now comprises more than 1,181 owner-operated workshops (as of August 2022). This makes ATR SERVICE GmbH the largest franchiser of independent multi-brand garages in Germany. With its 426 workshops located in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain, international garage service concept ACC AUTO CHECK CENTER also forms part of ATR. Monday, January 6, 2020

Suppliers

ATR suppliers encompass both

s manufacturers and

original equipment manufacturer An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

s such as Bosch,

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' ( ...

Hella ''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possibl ...

, Mahle,

Schaeffler Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, also known as Schaeffler Group (''Schaeffler-Gruppe'' in German), is a German manufacturer of rolling element bearings for automotive, aerospace and industrial uses. It was founded in 1946 by brothers Dr. ...

und

ZF Friedrichshafen AG ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, originally ''Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen'', and commonly abbreviated to ZF (ZF = "Zahnradfabrik" = "Cogwheel Factory"), is a German car parts maker headquartered in Friedrichshafen, in the south ...

. All in all, ATR works with around 150 suppliers, including companies servicing product groups such as automotive electric equipment, auto-chemicals, automotive accessories, auto body parts, wear parts and tools & workshop equipment.

References

External links

www.atr.de
{{Authority control Auto parts suppliers of Germany Companies based in Stuttgart Automotive repair shops