YesCar and FUCHS extend partnership
"I am waiting for the written proposal, but I will accept. I like challenges", says Artur Teixeira on his visit to FUCHS in Maia in February. The managing partner of the YesCar Group, who has been a FUCHS customer for seven years, now wants to extend his collaboration with the garage brand, and make the lubricants available to his colleagues. "I am happy with our partnership. So I'm going to accept the challenge of increasing the partnership and sell FUCHS products through our company Teixeira, Torres e Tavares, which is a purchasing centre for YesCar, but not only. We will try to extend the partnership and sell FUCHS products to my colleagues from other garages", explains Artur Teixeira.
The director of the Automotive Division of FUCHS Lubricants, André Castro Pinheiro, confirms the good collaboration and informs: "We supply a wide range of motor oils, from viscosity 0W-20 to 10W-40, with the approvals of the various brands intervened by YesCar. Despite the plethora of approvals, our FLEX range allows an optimisation of stock management of motor oils and their standardisation across all workshops." YesCar also receives four references of oils for manual gearboxes and differentials and two references of fluids for automatic gearboxes (ATF) for the entire fleet of vehicles serviced by YesCar. They also receive FUCHS antifreeze and brake fluid.
YesCar is not just another group of car maintenance and repair shops in the market. It is a Group with history and ambition, with environmental and social responsibility. Already in 2001, the Group's first workshop, Auto Duque, received the Centro Verde de Tecnologia Automóvel distinction as the first company in the sector in the Oporto district. "The award distinguished workshops that respected all waste collection standards," explains Artur Teixeira and confirms: "We continue to place great value on this. Currently, we have a funny project with an insurance company for the use of used parts. I think we have to take care of our environment, our planet. And if we all do a little bit, we'll help."
Today, the Group has 121 employees, including 32 mechanics, 24 painters and 17 tinsmiths. "We still don't have a mechanic," he says, but he stresses that "my three right-hand men are women". A law graduate, he took "his first course at the age of 11 in my father's workshop" who, in 1965, opened Auto Duque in Porto. Today, this workshop is the oldest of the YesCar Group's six workshops. The others are in Lisbon, Loures, Sintra, Matosinhos and Maia. The business continues to grow and the objective for 2023 is to exceed a turnover of 9 million euros.
It was 28 years ago that the Group's story began when Artur Teixeira bought Auto Duque from his father. He decided to bet and grow organically: he created the various workshops from scratch, only the one in Lisbon was acquired. He always looked for quality, seriousness and transparency and thus developed his father's basic concept. That's why he joined Bosch Car Service 11 years ago and that's why he replaced the lubricant supplier of another international brand with FUCHS.
The selection of FUCHS was a question of quality and image
When he was contacted by the garage brand, the managing partner of YesCar immediately saw the added value for his group: "I chose the FUCHS brand for its notoriety and prestige. It's a German brand and we know that German companies are very strict and have a very high quality product. It was a partnership that I found ideal because of this. At the time, we were working with another brand, but when the FUCHS commercial presented us with the values and the products, we changed." YesCar has many institutional renting, operational rental customers, and the move to FUCHS was, according to the head, very well accepted. "They are more demanding customers," he explains, "and as we work with cars under warranty, very new cars, we have to be very careful with the oil, the specifics of the oil, we have to meet all the requirements that the manufacturer asks for and FUCHS has all that."
And the balance of this seven-year partnership? Artur Teixeira answers immediately: "Very positive. Like everything in life, there are also difficulties. As we work with very recent cars, cars under warranty, when a problem happens and the dealer has to ask the manufacturer for warranty, the first thing they put is: the oil is not the right one. With the help of the FUCHS technical department we were able to quickly resolve the situations and prove that the oil was the correct one. So we have never had a problem of losing a warranty."
The collaboration between YesCar and FUCHS is a mutual success story. Common priorities such as sustainability, focus on people - employees and customers, constant quality and focus on the future make the partnership on a solid basis, so solid that it also allows for the intensification of business relations soon.
Maia, 10.02.2022
