Automotive Glass Replacement

Pilkington Automotive is the global number one in AGR distribution & wholesale. As well as its major OE facilities within each region, Pilkington operates additional capacity focused on production for the aftermarket. 

Pilkington Automotive has also developed extensive AGR distribution and wholesaling networks throughout Europe, Japan and NAFTA. Smaller aftermarket operations exist in South America and Asia. 

In servicing the aftermarket, Pilkington Automotive is able both to leverage its global OE supply programmes and to utilise its flexible, short-run manufacturing expertise to produce glazings for models which are no longer current, or for which Pilkington Automotive is not the OE supplier. 

The operations in Japan, Malaysia, Finland, Poland, the UK, China and Mexico play a key role in this respect. Additionally, in cases where in-house manufacture is not attractive to Pilkington Automotive, it supplements its own production where necessary with bought-in glazings to complete key product ranges.

Pilkington Automotive's aftermarket products can reach the end user by one of two main routes; the VMs' dealer networks or Pilkington Automotive's own distribution chains, supplying the retail fitter. The relative importance of these routes varies between markets, from 100% independent in the US to around 50% in Europe. Pilkington Automotive itself has well developed aftermarket distribution and wholesale networks throughout Europe, Japan and North America. It also has smaller businesses in South America and Asia. This combined regional presence makes Pilkington Automotive the largest player globally in AGR distribution and wholesale.