San Jose, Calif.—Kenny Ho, recently appointed to the California/Nevada/Arizona Automotive Wholesalers Association (CAWA) board, is 30 years old, which he admits is fairly young to be an operations manager for a warehouse distributor carrying a $6 million parts inventory and employing more than 40 people.
Ho said there was never any doubt in his mind while in college that he would someday help manage and eventually take over the helm at Intex Auto Parts, a company his father, Fred, started in 1979.
And even though Ho noted that he has a BS in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley, the parts business is all he knows.
“I started working (at Intex) every summer vacation from school probably when I was about 10,” he said. “I stocked parts and did cleanup. Then in 2001, after graduating from Cal, I came on here full-time. We’re a family business—both my parents and my sister are here every day.”
Intex operates out of two warehouses in San Jose totaling 50,000 square feet and carries about 150 product lines, Ho said. Eighty percent of the company’s sales are derived from delivering parts to independent repair shops, while the rest comes from walk-up retail sales, he said.
Ho’s exposure to CAWA goes all the way back to his college years, he said, when he was the recipient of a $1,000 CAWA annual scholarship, money he used to pay for his expenses while attending Cal. Intex has also been a member of CAWA for at least 17 years, he said.
“Being on the CAWA board for the next three years is very important to me,” he said.
“Organizations like CAWA go forward on your behalf when you can’t do it by yourself.
“We’ve got some major issues out there right now that could greatly impact our industry, so we need a group like CAWA to make sure we’re properly represented and that our voice is heard.”
Ho cited CAWA’s opposition to the proposed Cash for Clunkers program as a crucial issue demanding the parts industry’s immediate attention.
“We oppose Cash for Clunkers because although its intentions are good, it takes older cars off the road, vehicles that still have many more years of drivability left in them,” he said. “These are cars that will obviously need parts in the future, but if they’re retired, we’re losing all that potential business.
“It would essentially be cutting the lives of these cars by half in many instances. What this bill does is take money out of the aftermarket’s pockets and puts it in the carmaker’s pockets.”
By getting involved in decisions made by CAWA, Ho said he hopes to help make a difference in the industry.
“Unless you do something to change the way things are, they’re going to stay the same or get worse,” he said. “We need to work together to push legislation that is good for the industry as a whole.”
Networking with other aftermarket business owners is also a great benefit of being on the CAWA board, Ho said.
“I know a lot of these people on the board, and they’re the best of the best in Northern California, that’s for sure,” he said. “To be able to sit down with them on a regular basis and share ideas and concerns—that’s a huge benefit for us, especially now.”
