Britain’s largest independent car parts supplier has been sold in a deal that could be worth as much as £280 million.

ECP has been sold and the new owners are LKQ Corporation, reported to be the largest provider of aftermarket and recycled collision replacement parts in the US and Canada.

ECP founder and MD Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia will remain and retain a financial interest in the company. Indeed, if growth targets set by LKQ are met in 2012 and 2013 he stands to receive a further £55 million in addition to the £225 million sale price.

ECP’s success has largely been down to Singh’s entrepreneurial flair and supreme organisational skills. Singh arrived in the UK at the age of 13 having fled Idi Amin’s Ugandan regime and worked the market stalls in Petticoat Lane to save money to buy up a Willesden car parts business that had gone bust for £5,000. The story goes that stock was so disorganised when he took it over that he had to resort to asking customers to find their own parts. In the early ‘80s Singh spotted a gap in the market and took a van over to Europe, filling it with German car parts which he then made available at his Wembley outlet for much less than main dealer prices. Within seven years there were branches in Manchester and Birmingham and a comprehensive mail order operation.

Today, ECP operates from 89 locations and employs more than 3500 people. In the first half of 2011, sales rose 30 per cent to £164 million with pre-tax profits up 33 per cent for the period.