“Challenging” is a primary 2020 theme, particularly as it relates to suppliers’ and distributors’ ability to get products to manufacturers.
The parent company of NTP-STAG, however, appears to be seeing green chutes that finally might be restoring balance in the supply chain.
In a call discussing quarterly earnings, LKQ Corp. President and CEO Dominick Zarcone said the firm’s specialty segment – which includes NTP-STAG – found higher revenue in recent months.
“Given some industry-wide inventory challenges, our organic growth rates were clearly hindered by the low availability of product to meet the robust demand and we believe the lost revenue due to significant gaps in the supply chain,” Zarcone said, according to a transcript of the call provided by Seeking Alpha. “That said, we believe that our market-leading position allowed us to fare better than our competitors.”
Zarcone said discussions between distributors and suppliers continue to ensure inventory levels resume normal status.
“As you would expect, we are in constant communication with our suppliers to work with them and help wherever we can to get more product out on the road,” Zarcone said, according to the Seeking Alpha transcript. “Over the past few weeks, we have seen an increase in product receipts and we have finally started to increase our specialty inventory levels with sales growth rates increasing as a result.
“In particular, we are encouraged by the extended RV season with this particular product group continuing to perform well,” he said.
