Europe’s ageing vehicle fleet is creating favourable conditions for Poland’s two major listed automotive-parts distributors, with Inter Cars and Auto Partner both reporting double-digit revenue growth and sharply higher profits in the first half of 2026.
The companies told investors on 17 September that market conditions had improved after a period in which falling parts prices weighed on the sector. Firmer pricing, foreign expansion and an older European car fleet are now supporting sales, according to reporting by Puls Biznesu.
One of the most important structural factors is the age of vehicles already on European roads. New-car registrations fell sharply after 2019, when around 13 million vehicles were registered, dropping below 10 million annually between 2020 and 2022. Although registrations have subsequently recovered, the shortfall left a gap in the replacement cycle.
Auto Partner management estimates that more than 300 million cars are now operating on European roads and that their average age exceeds 13 years. Older vehicles generally require more replacement parts and maintenance, expanding the addressable market for independent distributors.
That trend is already visible in the results of Warsaw-listed Inter Cars.
The company increased first-half revenue by 12 per cent year-on-year to PLN 11.4 billion. Net profit reached PLN 490 million, more than 40 per cent above the comparable period, including PLN 279 million generated in the second quarter.
Profitability also improved. Inter Cars’ gross sales margin rose above 30 per cent, compared with 28.9 per cent a year earlier. Management attributed the improvement to greater scale, better pricing and a stronger product mix rather than to a single exceptional factor.
Foreign markets are becoming increasingly important to the company’s growth. Inter Cars reported 19 per cent revenue growth outside Poland in the first half, faster than its overall expansion, while margins abroad are typically around two to three percentage points higher.
The group now generates more than half of its revenue outside Poland and has set a longer-term ambition of reaching annual sales of €10 billion. Management has not specified when it expects to reach that level.
Auto Partner is following a similar direction.
The company generated PLN 94 million of net profit in the second quarter, an increase of 65 per cent year-on-year. First-half net profit rose by more than 60 per cent to PLN 156 million, while revenue increased 11 per cent to a record PLN 2.46 billion.
International sales have also moved above half of Auto Partner’s total revenue. The company intends to increase that share further while expanding its logistics network closer to customers in western European markets.
Its logistics centre in Zgorzelec, close to the German border, reached full operating capacity during the second quarter. Management says a warehouse located directly in Germany is expected to open no later than the beginning of 2028.
The results come as pricing conditions in the parts market improve. Industry executives told Puls Biznesu that the deflation seen during 2025 and early 2026 had ended, allowing distributors to grow through both higher volumes and stronger prices.
Currency movements have also helped the two groups because more than half of their sales are now generated abroad. At the same time, consolidation in European parts distribution is giving larger companies an advantage over smaller competitors through purchasing power, logistics and scale.
For investors following Poland’s listed automotive sector, the significance lies less in short-term movements in parts prices than in the longer structural trend behind demand.
Europe’s vehicle fleet is large and ageing, while the fall in new registrations between 2020 and 2022 means a significant number of cars remain in service for longer. That creates continuing demand for maintenance and replacement components even when new-vehicle sales are weaker.
Inter Cars and Auto Partner are also increasingly European businesses rather than distributors dependent primarily on Polish demand. Their expansion in foreign markets and investment in logistics infrastructure means the ageing of the wider European fleet has become directly relevant to their growth strategies.
The companies’ stronger first-half results do not guarantee that current pricing or profitability trends will continue. But the combination of an older vehicle population, recovering parts prices and growing overseas operations has given Poland’s largest listed independent distributors a favourable backdrop going into the second half of 2026.
