The 2024 ABP Club State of the Body Repair Industry Report, yet again, provides invaluable insights into bodyshop attitudes to and use of green parts.
“At Silverlake Automotive Recycling [Silverlake], we are encouraged by many of the findings of this year’s report.
80% of bodyshop respondents had fitted green parts in 2024, and 68% confirmed that the volume of green parts used by their body repair business had increased in the last year. 58% of bodyshops reported using more green parts than last year due to parts availability issues. These findings represent market opportunity for professional green parts suppliers and the chance to continue to impress bodyshop customers with quality products and outstanding service, further establishing green parts as a reliable, permanent feature of the parts supply chain.
It is also encouraging and rewarding to see a downward trend in many of the historical issues that have represented barriers to growth in the use of green parts. Bodyshops citing poor availability as a reason for not fitting green parts, or more green parts, dropped by 11%, whilst those citing the requirement for too much rectification work fell by 12%. Poor quality and inconsistent quality fell by 8% and 6,% respectively, and delivery delays dropped by 6%. We believe the improved customer experience being realised by bodyshops can, in part, be attributed to their increased awareness of the VRA Certification Scheme/UK Standard for Green parts, up by 12%, and a 28% increase in bodyshops reporting this influenced where they bought their green parts in 2024.
There was an encouraging 19% jump in bodyshops using up to 2% of green parts in their total parts volume, up to 48% from 29% in 2023. The higher volume use of green parts, as a percentage of overall parts volumes, continues to decrease year on year since the first report in 2021. This can, in part, be attributed to the effects of Covid and Brexit on new parts availability, which were at their peak in 2021. Improved market penetration, in the form of higher ratios of green parts to new parts usage, represents opportunity for professional green parts suppliers who focus on quality and service consistency.
Silverlake was proud to be voted the ABP Repairers’ Choice – Green Parts Supplier 2024. We believe it is our focus on quality and service, combined with our partnership approach to our bodyshop customers, that underpin market confidence in our product. We are certified to the VRA UK Standard for Green Parts and we actively educate the market on the associated quality consistency benefits. Our active bodyshop customer base continues to grow, as does the volume of parts we supply.
In order to build in-depth understanding, we invite bodyshops to tour our site and see our operations first-hand, together with how we handle their orders. This includes visiting our dismantling, imaging, quality grading, provenance reporting, cataloguing, storing and shipping departments. Joint learning and shared best practice reinforce our bodyshop relationships and embed a partnership built on trust. We listen and shape our service to meet bodyshops’ needs, using data and analytics to ensure we are purchasing the right vehicles and dismantling the right parts; boosting order fulfilment rates and, ultimately, bodyshop key-to-key times. Investment in our nationwide delivery fleet ensures our parts arrive on time, every time.
We are excited to be driving forward a professional, sustainable future for green parts, working alongside our bodyshop customers to unlock even greater commercial and environmental gains from a circular economy benefiting all parties.”
