Parts.com Closes 93 New Dealer Agreements
18 April 2000
Parts.com Closes 93 New Dealer Agreements
SANFORD, Fla.--April 18, 2000--and Bill Heard, World's Largest Chevrolet Retailer
parts.com, Inc. (stock symbol: MIRM), a leading real-time business-to-business e-commerce parts exchange, today announced that its recent marketing efforts have successfully culminated in the signing of an additional 93 Silver Distributor/Supplier agreements last week, yielding a total of 155 new agreements in just 10 days. The new distributors/suppliers collectively reported over $275 million in 1999 auto parts sales.
"Automotive dealerships across the country are embracing our model because it represents the future of the auto parts industry," stated Shawn D. Lucas, chairman, president and co-chief executive officer of parts.com, Inc. "Parts.com has a superior business model and -- just as important -- a live, operational B2B2C (business-to- business -to- consumer) exchange."
"Our inclusion of industry giants like the Lustine and Heard organizations attests to the depth of technology and vision of the parts.com business model," explained Jeffrey Odato, vice president of national sales, "Last year, Lustine alone posted parts sales in excess of $80 million. The automotive industry is taking notice of parts.com, and it's very exciting."
"We're still fielding hundreds of phone calls since our April 15th deadline from disappointed latecomers," continued Odato. "We are actually considering an extension of the program in order to accommodate everyone. Dealers are responding enthusiastically to our initial campaign because they understand that we have the ability to change this industry to `real time' and deliver tangible value from the manufacturer right to the end-user and consumer. This is the parts exchange dealers have been waiting a long time for."
About parts.com
parts.com provides a business-to-business e-commerce solution for the $600 billion auto parts industry. The site creates value for participants throughout the supply chain, including manufacturers, distributors and parts buyers, as a result of its unique, direct business model which eliminates a number of inefficient links in the supply chain inherent in the auto parts business. parts.com's technology and logistics plan enables parts suppliers to deliver their product more quickly and cost-effectively than through traditional distribution channels. parts.com was officially launched on January 23, 2000 at the National Automobile Dealers Association's (NADA) annual conference in Orlando, Fla.
(This news release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although parts.com, Inc. believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be met. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from parts.com's expectations include the operational performance of parts.com, the Company's success in entering into strategic alliances, parts.com's and ReallyKnow.com's operational and financial performance, industry conditions, demand for its products, as well as other risks.)