At the beginning of next year, Birner GmbH, the Austrian market leader in vehicle spare parts and car accessories, will join the CARAT group of companies as a shareholder. With the addition of the new shareholder, the purchasing cooperation will grow significantly and expand its network to the Austrian independent aftermarket.

At the beginning of the coming year, the CARAT group of companies can record a significant increase in the ranks of its affiliated trading houses. The Austrian parts dealer Birner joins the cooperation as a partner. The company will be one of the largest shareholders within the group of companies.

“We are very pleased that we will shape the market together with the Birner company in Austria and Germany and strengthen the medium-sized parts trade” says Christian Gabler, Managing Director of the CARAT group of companies. “Due to our very similar structures and objectives, we will be able to realize many synergies in the areas of purchasing, marketing and IT.”

Birner is expanding its own logistics network with the two CARAT warehouse locations

The Birner family business looks back on more than 90 years of company history and has 26 branches in all federal states in Austria and employs 560 people. Birner maintains a central warehouse with 600,000 items and can in future supplement its logistics with the goods and logistics services of the CARAT Group. As a CARAT shareholder, Birner has access to the two warehouse locations of the group of companies, the ad-CARGO central warehouse in Castrop-Rauxel and the new logistics location ad-CARGO regional warehouse south in Nürnberg, which will start at the beginning of 2023.

Birner and CARAT are more than just parts suppliers for workshops and trade

Both companies have been members of the European umbrella organization ADI (Autodistribution International) for years and have identical supplier structures and the same workshop concepts. In addition to the supply of spare parts, both CARAT and Birner offer dealers and workshops a wide range of commercial and technical support, marketing and workshop concepts and training courses.

The two companies see the digitization of workshop processes to secure the future of independent workshops as one of the greatest challenges of the coming years. In future cooperation, numerous synergies will result from the similarities. For example, CARAT’s own brand COREXX will be introduced in Austria and complement the Birner range.

CARAT extends its network to other European countries

With the entry of Birner, the CARAT Group can achieve another milestone in its strategy for growth and expansion into other European countries. Most recently, the cooperation became internationally oriented with the accession of the BPW Aftermarket Group.

Carat 22.11.2022