Randolph Palmer Milford-primarily based e-commerce car-elements employer FCP Euro is looking at a hefty expansion following a latest $7 million infusion from a Louisiana funding firm. Stonehenge Capital introduced its new debt investment into the Milford commercial enterprise Wednesday; cash is predicted to help FCP improve its stock, staffing, and warehousing operations, among other matters. “We are simply excited to discover a capital companion aligned with the boom plans and imaginative and prescient of FCP Euro,” stated FCP CEO Scott Drozd in a news launch. “This funding will assist in improving FCP Euro’s position inside the expansive automobile aftermarket.”
FCP Euro sells aftermarket European vehicle components online through its virtual website. Its brick-and-mortar facility at a hundred and fifty-five Hill St. The enterprise’s online platform caters to do-it-yourself clients with a set of instructional movies to walk customers through repairs. The organization additionally gives dozens of “kits” that offer customers all the necessary components wanted for minor upkeep, allowing them to shop for money instead of bringing their cars to restore stores, in step with the website.
Stonehenge’s funding changed into finished through the Invest CT program and Insurance Reinvestment Fund Tax Credit program, in step with Charles Haberkorn, Managing Director at Stonehenge. In addition to growing inventory and expanding its warehouse, the funding will also permit FCP Euro to make bigger its automation gadget and other needs at its facility. Hiring at the Milford commercial enterprise is also predicted to surge, with full-time employees growing from eighty-two to 150 humans in 2023, consistent with a news release.
“FCP is an excessive-increased e-trade enterprise with a dynamic management crew that has confirmed the capacity to power pinnacle-line boom,” Haberkorn stated during the launch. Since 1999, Stonehenge Capital has been running as a financial services firm and has targeted community development initiatives, tax credit applications, and increased capital investment for national tasks. The business enterprise reportedly manages more than $3 billion worth of assets. FCP Euro has been in business since 1986, starting as an automobile parts store in Groton. The company subsequently commenced its online platform beneath Drozd and president Nick Bauer, who later evolved it to what it’s far from nowadays.
The enterprise relocated to Milford in 2008 and has persisted in its growth. As a result, FCP has become ordinary on the Inc. 5000 fastest growing groups in you. S. A. The e-trade business was ranked fourth, with 750 closing 12 months, reporting $30.Three million in revenue in 2017 and a 3-year boom of 65 percent. That, in the end, caught Haberkorn’s attention, he stated. “It’s just a great growth tale,” he said, adding that FCP Euro had outstripped its borrowing capability with its earlier creditors without signs of slowing. Haberkorn said the employer will double its sales this 12 months, surpassing expectancies.
“Originally, we had projected revenue of about $ seventy-seven million for 2019; however, the way Q1 has gone, I think the enterprise might also touch $one hundred million,” he said. These days, there is no telling where any given aftermarket part was made or even who made it. The global parts market is flooded with cheap, substandard garbage that does not conform to any accepted safety and quality standards, which, in practical terms, means that you could be endangering the lives of your family by refusing to pay “exorbitant” prices for safety-critical parts at the dealer. Moreover, if an OEM part fails, you know who to talk to, which is often not the case with aftermarket parts. The result is that you usually have no recourse, and you have to buy another part at a different auto parts store, hoping it won’t fail again within a few days. Thus, occasionally paying more for an OEM part can save a lot of money, time, and aggravation in the long run.
