Why Impex hosted a customer workshop at Vodafone Rally de Portugal
For the French automotive accessories distributor, bringing key customers inside a WRC event turned out to be the most effective sales meeting of the year.
Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Chimilin, France, Impex is one of Europe’s leading wholesale distributors of automotive accessories and equipment. Part of the DC Expansion Group, the company employs 250 people across operations in France, Italy, Spain and Asia. Its product portfolio spans everything from technical car parts and in-car multimedia to snow chains and two-wheeler accessories, distributed to more than 5,000 stores across France alone.
WRC car accessories range sold through the Impex partnership
© IMPEX
Among the licensed brands Impex distributes is the WRC car accessories range — a partnership the company has held since 2008. The range covers seat covers, wheel covers, onboard equipment and interior accessories, all carrying the FIA World Rally Championship name and identity. Activating that brand effectively in the retail channel, however, requires more than catalogue distribution. It requires customers who understand what the WRC actually is.
That gap is what Vodafone Rally de Portugal was designed to close.
The idea
The plan was straightforward: invite a focused group of key retailers and distributors from France, Portugal and Spain to a WRC round, run a product workshop on-site, and let the championship itself do the rest of the brand storytelling. Business in the morning, the rally in the afternoon.
For Ryad at Impex, the logic was simple. Explaining the DNA of a motorsport licence from a meeting room only goes so far. Putting customers inside the championship changes the conversation.
Seeing the championship up close, not from a meeting room
© IMPEX
"When you are at the rally, the storytelling of the brand becomes much easier. Customers understand immediately why the WRC name matters. They have just seen it." - Ryad Zaghouani, Product Manager at Impex
How it worked
WRC Promoter facilitated a rotating programme around the workshop so that no group was sitting idle. While one set of guests was in the two-hour product session — covering new catalogue launches, the full WRC accessories range, and a practical conversation about how retailers can activate the brand in-store through branded corners and promotional mechanics — the others were out in the event with a guide. They toured the service park, visited the Hankook tyre service zone, explored the broadcast and media area, and had time on the rally simulator.
Ryad Zaghouani of Impex presenting at the workshop
© IMPEX
Impex product workshop at Vodafone Rally de Portugal
© IMPEX
For the guests in attendance, it was largely a first encounter with rallying up close rather than on a screen. Most had only ever followed the sport on television, and Ryad noticed the shift as soon as they were in the service park: the scale of the operation, the noise, the speed of the cars through the stages. The broadcast tells the story of the rally, but being there adds another dimension entirely.
Customers understand immediately why the WRC name matters.
Portugal was a considered choice for a first event. Within easy reach of France and Spain, where Impex operates a subsidiary, it was a natural fit for an Iberian customer group. The rally also delivers reliable spectacle — high jumps, fast gravel stages, packed hillsides — that makes a strong impression on first-time attendees.
The result
By the end of the day, Impex had held substantive commercial conversations with its key customers, covering new products and how to better activate the WRC brand at point of sale. New order discussions followed. The internal verdict was clear: the format works, and the plan is already to build on it.
That’s the goal — keep it fresh, keep building on it.
Rallye Monte-Carlo is under consideration for the next edition, a natural fit for French and Italian customers given its location and its status as one of the most famous events on the WRC calendar. Ideas are also taking shape to add competitive elements for guests — from simulator championships to a karting session — to make the experience as engaging on the activity side as it is on the business side.
"Each year you improve, and the event is not the same as the last. That’s the goal — keep it fresh, keep building on it." - Ryad Zaghouani, Product Manager at Impex
The model is proving its worth, and Impex is already building on it. Business first, the rally second — and for Impex, the two work better together than either does alone.
Impex guests get a first-hand look at a rally stage
© IMPEX
