High performance. Good, better, best.
Aftermarket brake terms easily understood with many years of use within the industry, but there is a relatively recent term, an exotic-sounding one, covering a new niche category of aftermarket brake components – ultra-premium.
To find out exactly how ultra-premium differs from other aftermarket brake segments, The BRAKE Report magazine went to the dominant player, arguably the pioneer and lone major player in this limited arena, Akebono Brake Corporation.
The Japanese-based company which supplies brake components to the world’s leading OEMs (auto manufacturers) decided about 20 years ago to begin selling direct-replacement components thus offering an alternative to the industry’s good, better, best alternatives when a consumer needed a brake job. (Unless, of course, the customer wanted a high-performance option which was in a very different category than replacement.)
“Twenty years ago, good, better, best is what existed,” explained Tommy Rivera, who as an Akebono Brake Corporation Senior Director, runs the ultra-premium business out of its Elizabethtown, Kentucky offices. “And now, if you look at the Frost & Sullivan [aftermarket report] it’s good, better, best, ultra-premium. And it’s a tiny market.”
Just how small? According to the renowned business analyst firm, approximately 3% of the overall brake aftermarket is ultra-premium.
Why does Akebono want to play in such a minor segment?
“Frost & Sullivan says there are about 100 million brake jobs every year,” explains Rivera, who has been in the ultra-premium business for most of his 22 years at Akebono. “So that’s 100-million opportunities to make a sale. And [the numbers say] that is basically three million ultra-premium sales annually.”
Two keys to success in this segment, and they go together, are the installer who wants to use a high-quality product and a customer willing to pay for this quality.
The full article can be found in the August 2024 issue of The BRAKE Report Magazine. Subscribe here to get our latest issue.
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