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With two decades of serving the Peterborough, Ont., and region market, Peterborough Automotive principal Rod Anderson is clear about the positive impact joining Bestbuy has had on the business.

When he and partner Doug Barraball started Peterborough Automotive in 1987, a traditional wholesale automotive parts business with a machine shop, it was always the plan to become part of Bestbuy. Within two years that goal had become reality.

“We knew that if we were going to succeed, we had to be able to buy at the best price, and be able to create our own marketing.” They didn’t want to lose their independence that they saw at risk with other groups.

Their connection to Bestbuy seems to have worked well over the years, with the growing business now operating at three locations; Peterborough’s main outlet, as well as operations in nearby Lindsay with Walkwood Auto Supply, and Lakefield-based Lakefield Auto Parts, with some 20 delivery trucks and a combined staff of nearly 50.

“The true incentive we were looking for,” says Anderson, “was to be truly independent and to create our own way of doing business.

“Freedom is the linchpin. We can have the freedom and all the bells and whistles. We didn’t give up anything. We didn’t want a program that was created in Toronto or somewhere else that was supposed to work in all of North America.”

The flexibility of Bestbuy’s marketing services gives them the freedom to pick and choose what they want, and mould existing programs to suit their market and their customers.

Still, he says, it is undeniable that the power of group purchasing remains the most important benefit of being a Bestbuy shareholder.
“When you’re smaller as we are as an organization, it gives us the ability to compete in today’s market.

“I daresay we wouldn’t be as successful as we are if it weren’t for Bestbuy.”

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