The Automobile After-Market, barring a couple of small firms is comatose, wrecked by a crisis that doesn't seem to end and as to which most companies can see no light.
Yet there is a great opportunities at these devastating times. Devastation of the economy and of the people making it up makes for greater incentive, indeed for the necessity to hold on; to life of course but more importantly for the industry to the old family car. The older and the more worn it is the more car care equipment and products are necessary to keep the beast rolling.
But help is on the way. Government has told us so. While they all pumped trillions of dollars into their financial systems, they pumped life into this industry by pulling money away, the rescue of the Automobile After-Market industry is highlighted by government's starvation of the world's roadway infrastructure.
The world's roads are falling apart. It's a global disgrace and we're paying for it twice over, in taxation and repair bills. Those repair bills are a de-facto subsidy to the Automobile After-Market industry.
The world's road system is falling apart - literally. Chronic under-investment slashed local authority budgets and spiraling compensation costs mean motorists are facing the misery of driving on potholed, cracked and rutted roads that won't be repaired for years. A grim picture of our crumbling road network; but good cause to believe in the success of those companies of the Automobile After-Market Industry that supply the wares to automobile and vehicular maintenance and care : one such leading global company is a small public company traded on the OTC under the symbol FLKI.
As best the experts tell it there is a ten year backlog of road maintenance work in the western world alone. That's a give or take a billion one trillion dollar shortfall, and a lot of hay. In the United States, roads are resurfaced approximately every 55 years whereas the recommended timescale is 20 years.
Quite aside from the advantages visited upon the industry, lawyers in certain jurisdictions are having a field day. Annual compensation claims against state, municipal and federal authorities for road damage and accidents have sky rocketed to hundreds of millions.
When I say Automobile After-Market, put the stress on the word "after" this because warranty claims premised on damage caused by road surface represent one in six of the warranty claims handled for vehicle breakdown. Damaged suspensions are the leading claim according to the Automobile Industry and its Dealerships who pay the bill. This is a fast growing trend which is seriously impacting on the increasing losses of the Automobile Industry to the proportionate benefit of the Automobile After-Market who supplies the parts, the products and the chemicals for maintenance, rectification and repairs.
The problem as I see it is that the world is locked in a spiral of decline. Less money each year is spent on addressing this situation. Motorist contribute about 800 billion dollars to their respective treasuries each year, yet only 12% of those amounts is actually budgeted, let alone spent, on roads and that doesn't mean to the limited task of maintenance and repairs.
The dedicated fund for routine maintenance remains available to busy government accounting gurus for allocations to fill any short elsewhere. The fault as best I can lay it is with the federal governments. While one can see increases being allocated to State and other authorities the funds are not restricted to road repairs and maintenance, hence it is too often diverted away to education, health or another more evocative and politically attractive issue.
This to me makes no real sense. You don't have to be politically savvy to realize that improving what people see when they walk out of their front door has voter appeal. Yet, don't take the bet, road improvements is an uphill battle as is improving the transportation system, over the years less than 4% of road related income has been spent on transportation. The word "pittance" comes to mind.
See an opportunity in the Automobile After-market? Yes, my instinct and the excellent fundamentals move me to the stock of a small innovative and highly successful company; FLKI. The company stands to pick up a massive morsel of these easy pickings and at current share prices is a steal – every one aware of the nightmare of roads and their effect on vehicles of all kind should own a couple thousand dollars worth of FLKI shares.