Advance Auto Parts

I wanted to please every customer and give them honest value and to be present with them when they walked into the door. Do a few extra t In the darkest days of the Great Depression unemployment in America was at 25% and many banks and businesses were forced to close. There were very depressing times and very sad times for the nation as a whole. But w He pawned So far as their values were concerned they were had a negative net worth. It owed more money than it had in a way of assets. Still the young entrepreneur had the self-confidence and determination to pursue I had faith in myself that I had the capacity to do somet With a business model based on honesty and integrity, Mr. Taubman did do somet Prospering and expanding We did not have a depression. The advanced stores didn't have it. Every year our vol It's never stopped. World War II threatened to stop advanced stores as they were known when rationing made auto parts and many other quality products nearly impossible to obtain. Mr. Taubman kept the company in business by filling Now when you have to do somet We just couldn't close up our stores and wait for the water and we had to survive. Advanced not only survived, we thrived, closing out the 1950s with more than 50 stores and over $60 million in sales. T In 1956, Arthur Son Nick joined the company. Nick worked at nearly every position, learning all aspects of the family business from the inside out. He earned In 1961, we found the opportunity and purchased General Parks Warehouse. Our sales for the first month were $18,000. But by the end of 1962, our first full year in business, our sales had reached $651,000 and our net profit was just over $200. That's $200 for the year. We're not a successful company, we're a company of successful people. We have a little victories every day and big victories in the long run. In 1969, he became president and began to strategically move the company away from household items to focus more on auto parts and accessories, renaming the company Advance Auto. Now Introduce our newest store, so give us a try. When America moved to the suburbs in the 70s, Advance moved with them, updating our brand and image with bright, clean and well-organized stores. Our impressive growth was aided by a new state-of-the-art point-of-sales computer system that tracked sales and inventory. In 1973, we convinced Dan Bach from New York and Joe Hughes from Indianapolis to join us to form a marketing program for independent auto parts stores. Ed W A young man from my advertising agency replied, Carquest, and the rest is We signed our first store late in that year and it belonged to Bill Cotton in my hometown of Sanford, and A few years later in 1976, my brother Ham and I recognized that the key to our continued growth would be the ability to attract, Three of our original teammates are still active in the company today, Mike Graham, Mary Pope and Bill and ours. Advance Auto Parts was almost totally destroyed in 1985 by a devastating flood that washed through the advance headquarters and warehouse in Roanoke, Virginia. It was literally a 100 percent loss of all the inventory in the warehouse. We lost the rest, all of our computer capability, all of our files were destroyed or waterlogged. It was a horrible, horrible mess. But what could have been the end of Advance Auto became a new beginning. The entire Advance Family rallied together and quickly got back into business with a minimal loss in sales and an accelerated growth plan. It was a remarkable recovery. We literally thought we could do anyt In fact, we had the saying that as long as we work together we can do anyt You may not know it, but by the early 1980s there were 20 car quest members' companies serving most of the country. We took our first steps out of the Carolinas in 1980 with the acquisition of General Trading Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, a company that got its roots in the 1850s and the horse and buggy supply business. In 1983 we merged with Value Motor Supply in Billings, Montana and earned some important lessons in automotive parts store partners From those lessons we developed our joint venture store program, w Also in 1983 were able to convince Joe into joining the GPI Management Team. Joe has been my friend, my partner and an incredible asset to t By the late 1980s the marketplace was changing again. Ve The pendul The Advance rebounded by constructing a massive new distribution center enabling us to more than double our store count and by the mid-90s we became the fastest growing retailer in the country. It was now time to get serious about the auto parts business. Were an accessory store. I mean people came to us formats and batteries and headlights and we really weren't recognized as a parts business. Now renamed Advance Auto Parts we launched a premi Were real we just weren't We did a lot of t We tried to involve them. We tried to ask them a lot of questions. We tried to learn from our customers and I they bend over backwards to try to help people and help us and it's the name of the game is take care of the customer. Taking care of the customer would mean not only more quality auto parts delivered quickly but more stores and distribution centers as well. We continued to grow throughout the 1990s but what we took on beginning in 1997 was somet Opportunities such as expanding into Canada and acquiring Republic Automotive and Big Auto Parts in the fall of 1998 only come along once in a lifetime. As a result in two and a half years we expanded the no company in the automotive aftermarket has ever tackled so much growth in such a short period. The GPI teammates stepped up to the line making the personal sacrifices necessary to get the job done and double the company's net sales to over a billion dollars between 1993 and 1998. In 2004 with the marketplace once again making major s T In 2005 we formed General Parts International Inc. to serve as a holding company for all the companies that now form our family. The new century brought a competitive aggression to advance auto parts. Our purchase of Western Auto, Parts America, Discount Auto Parts plus a n Our 75th anniversary would bring more challenges, and a window of opportunity to transform our business with e-commerce initiatives, global sourcing solutions and commercial acceleration. A winning strategy of service leaders Excellence is a winning habit. I'm proud. I want each and every one of you to be proud of working for t Our greatest opportunities and our greatest days are still ahead of us. A renewed focus on our values serves our customers and our team. Extraordinary community engagement efforts supporting local and national charities continue to fulfill a promise made more than 80 years ago. Whatever success there has been in advance auto parts has been accomplished with and by and because of the finest group of people I've ever had the opportunity to know or to be associated with in any kind of venture. Your future has great opportunities and it's up to you to help make the difference.