Milestones and awards at Vast-Auto Convention

Vast-Auto Distribution celebrated its previous year and looked ahead at its annual convention in Montreal.

Held at the recently renovated Queen Elizabeth Fairmont Hotel in Montreal Feb. 16-18, parts vendors and business partners met with store and repair shop owners to showcase new promotions, products, services, equipment and technology.

A record 66 exhibitors were on hand for the expo with 650 people in all coming out for the event, according to Pierre Lafrance, marketing director at Vast-Auto.

A series conferences were held for marketing, sales, IT and purchasing teams at Vast-Auto. Sessions touched on challenges being faced today, such as technology, inventory, recruitment, profitability, increasing and retaining their customer base, enabling store and repair shop owners to discover new strategies and programs and deepening knowledge to better address daily challenges.

• Vast-Auto made a massive donation to a Montreal trades school that will help future technicians. Read about it here.

“We collected a lot of relevant information from the AIA and the industry in general, as well as from banners and workshop,” Lafrance said. “We also went looking for information on what is coming. Certainly with respect to electric cars, we will go from 5 per cent to 80 per cent in 20 years, but we must be on the lookout for all these new technologies. ”

Emphasis was also placed on customer service, particularly the new generation. “And when I say ‘new generation,’ I don’t necessarily mean age, but technological tools, such as billing by text message,” Lafrance said.

Attendees heard from Mylène Paquette, the first North American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean from west to east. She spoke about perseverance, pulling from the experience her four-month journey across the North Atlantic.

The annual Poker Run gave out more than $25,000 in prizes.

To close out the event, recognition awards were handed out, recognizing key anniversaries, Vendor of the Year and winners from repair shop and store banners. Company president John Del Vasto expressed his gratitude and appreciation for vendors, customers and employees for their support.