A Fortune 500 chemical company is one of the world's leading suppliers of refrigerant for vehicle air conditioning. Its product reaches drivers only through distributors and garages, and it saw a larger opportunity further downstream. Vehicle air conditioning needs regular servicing, and the market across Europe is split between dealer workshops and independent repair shops. The company wanted to know whether it could build a specialized AC servicing brand in that market.
An earlier voice-of-customer phase had studied the demand. What the leadership team needed next was a business model it could take to its board. Which value propositions would persuade private vehicle owners and fleet operators to choose a new specialist over their usual garage? Which service formats would they actually use? Which parts of the business should the company run itself, and which should it hand to partners? And what would a pilot cost and return in the countries where it might launch first?
PP&A led the business-model phase of the program for both the consumer and fleet markets across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Two research streams ran in parallel. Ten in-depth interviews with senior executives from car repair chains, online repair booking platforms and motor insurance drew on their experience building and scaling after-sales networks. An online survey then tested two service concepts with 320 vehicle owners and 80 fleet managers: micro locations, compact service points where people already go, and mobile service, a technician who comes to the vehicle at home or at work.
The team mapped the customer journey for each segment from discovery to booking, service and return visit, identified the needs, pain points and success factors at each step, and distilled a service offering around the propositions that resonated most with customers.
On the supply side, the team analyzed the refrigerant value chain to locate the growth opportunity, mapped the business process into four business-model options ranging from fully in-house to service-only, sized the market, profiled the main servicing chains and screened potential partners. A final phase turned this into a financial model and an implementation roadmap, worked through with the client's team and delivered as a board-ready business plan.
The client received a tested value proposition, a defined service concept and a board-ready business plan. The research showed how each concept landed with private owners and fleet managers in each of the five countries, which service sites customers would prefer, how they judged the proposed prices, and where the consumer and fleet markets differ. On the supply side the client gained a market size, profiles of the main servicing chains, a screened list of partners and a view of which parts of the business to run in-house. The financial model translated the client's revenue ambition into the network of service points and mobile units it would require and modeled the economics of a single pilot site. The roadmap set out a staged launch from pilot to growth, the partners and leadership hires it would need, and the decision points the board would face along the way.
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