Elite Mechanical and Proparts team to set up shop in Whanganui

Elite Mechanical owner Mike Mooney (left) and Proparts purchasing manager Mike Palmer will be selling high performance parts for cars and boats. Photo / Bevan Conley

Elite Mechanical and Engineering Services and Proparts NZ have teamed up to bring Proparts to Whanganui.

The store will be the fifth branch of Proparts NZ and will be opened at Elite's Heads Rd site before the end of March.

Proparts stocks high performance parts and accessories for drag race, speedway, hotrod restoration, muscle car and jet sprinting competitors.

Elite Mechanical storeman Mike Palmer will take on a dual role as the purchasing manager of Proparts Wanganui. He said there is a strong market in Whanganui with the stockcars, various car clubs and a general passion people have for motor vehicles in the town.

"Nobody in town has got a dedicated high performance part supply outlet at the moment," Palmer said.

"Everyone's having to freight stuff from out of town so there are delays.

"There's a lot of interest in Whanganui. There's a lot of people that do this, and they currently travel to Palmerston [North] or elsewhere to buy. Now we can keep it all in town and keep the service at a local level."

Mooney said it will be great for locals as they no longer have to travel for parts and it will minimise, and potentially eliminate, freight costs.

Elite plans to open the Proparts leg of the store within the month, but customers are welcome to come to the office now and order in any items they wish, which will be available once the store opens.

"We have stacks and stacks of stock that people are still going to Palmerston for and don't even know we have it here," Palmer said.

Palmer said the move will introduce "a new type of customer" to the Elite Mechanical side of the shop too. Elite provides sheetmetal fabrication or engineering, machinery maintenance and has a water jet cutter on site.

"We can offer the whole package. We have so many services that we can provide besides just Proparts," Palmer said.