{"id":42715,"date":"2026-07-07T14:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/?p=42715"},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:19:23","slug":"ufi-group-joins-the-groupauto-international-gai-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/news-en\/ufi-group-joins-the-groupauto-international-gai-network\/","title":{"rendered":"UFI Group joins the GROUPAUTO International (GAI) network"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>UFI Group joins GAI\u2019s supplier portfolio thanks to its OE pedigree<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The agreement with GROUPAUTO International (GAI) opens up new global growth prospects for the UFI and SOFIMA brands<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Consistent growth is forecast in the next few years<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>UFI<\/strong>, a global leader in filtration, thermal management and green hydrogen technologies, has joined <strong>GROUPAUTO International\u2019s supplier portfolio<\/strong>, signifying the expansion of both its <strong>UFI and SOFIMA brands<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A true benchmark in the distribution of Aftermarket components and products for professional repairers, GAI is one of the leading networks in the industry. Headquartered in Levallois-Perret, France, it is present in 118 countries on five continents, where it has 30 regional members, nearly 2,000 distributors, a network of more than 35,000 workshops for passenger car repair, and over 2,500 workshops for truck repair.<\/p>\n<p>With its Original Equipment (OE) pedigree, the UFI Group joins GAI\u2019s portfolio of over 67 suppliers \u2013 one of the most prestigious networks for the automotive Aftermarket, which generates sales of over 40 billion euros across the passenger car and heavy-duty sectors.<\/p>\n<p>UFI Group was selected to join GAI because of its many strengths, which include a presence in the OE segment, technological innovations (with over 360 internationally recognised patents), the quality of the UFI and SOFIMA brand distribution network in Europe and further afield, and the potential to develop business on a global scale.<\/p>\n<p>The partnership with GAI is an important move enabling UFI to grow market share and turnover across both the UFI and SOFIMA brands in Europe and beyond, with consistent growth expected in the next few years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paolo Cataldi, <\/strong><strong>Aftermarket Business Unit General Manager at<\/strong><strong> UFI<\/strong>, comments: \u201cWe are aware of the importance of networks and are extremely proud of this valuable partnership. It constitutes another step in the UFI Group&#8217;s organic growth strategy, which has seen us establish partnerships with other international groups since 2014. We want to offer the market our technological strength and logistical flexibility, and we have the added advantage of being an OE supplier to the most important brands in the passenger car and heavy-duty sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are pleased to welcome UFI as a new partner within our supply base,\u201d emphasises <strong>GAI President &amp; CEO, <\/strong><strong>G\u00fcnter Weber, and Director Business Development, Beno\u00eet Pradaud.<\/strong> \u201cThis is another step towards our continuous goal of expanding our offering to the automotive Aftermarket with high-quality products.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- Image Slider -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tjQuery(document).ready(function($) {\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Load carousel after its images are loaded\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpreloadImages($(\"#img_slider_1bb34a36840b2791e5e1a66e7a3ba0f6 img\"), function () 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src=\"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/UFI_joins_GAI_network_GAI_Gunter_Weber_President__CEO.jpeg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"img_slider_item boc_owl_lazy\"><div class=\"pic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/UFI_joins_GAI_network_GAI_Benoit_Pradaud_Business_Development_Manager.jpeg\" class=\"mfp_popup_gal\" title=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/UFI_joins_GAI_network_GAI_Benoit_Pradaud_Business_Development_Manager.jpeg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] UFI Group joins GAI\u2019s supplier portfolio thanks to its OE pedigree The agreement with GROUPAUTO International (GAI) opens up<\/p>\n<div class=\"h10\"><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"more-link1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/news-en\/ufi-group-joins-the-groupauto-international-gai-network\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,26],"tags":[1215],"class_list":["post-42715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-en","category-news-en","tag-groupauto-international-en"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42716,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42715\/revisions\/42716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufifilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}