Genuine Parts Profile
Genuine Parts Company operates as a global service organization engaged in the distribution of automotive and industrial replacement parts.
The company serves its customers from more than 10,700 locations, primarily in North America and Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand (‘Australasia’). The company offers outstanding service, an industry-leading assortment of replacement parts, extensive supply chain and distribution capabilities, and enhanced technology solutions.
Strategy
The company focuses on its market-leading automotive and industrial businesses.
The company is organized into two business segments: the company’s Automotive Parts Group (‘Automotive’) and the company’s Industrial Parts Group (‘Industrial’). In the automotive landscape, the company sees a positive long-term growth outlook across the markets the company serves supported by an increase in miles driven, a growing and aging car parc, increasing vehicle complexity, and a growing opportunity with electric vehicles. In the industrial landscape, the company sees disruptions in the global supply chain creating opportunities with nearshoring, a strong outlook for automation and robotics solutions, the need for industrial expertise due to an aging technical workforce and diversified end market opportunities.
The company’s strategy is designed to position the company for long-term profitable growth and enhance shareholder value.
Segments
Automotive segment
The company’s Automotive segment is the largest global automotive network of parts and care. The company distributes automotive parts, accessories and solutions in North America, Europe and Australasia. The company’s Automotive businesses offer complete inventory, cataloging, marketing, training and other programs to the aftermarket in each of these regions, distinguishing the company’s business from the competition.
The company’s global Automotive network sells to customers in both commercial do-it-for-me (‘DIFM’) and retail do-it-yourself (‘DIY’) segments of the market and covers substantially all global motor vehicle models. The company’s DIFM customers include local, regional and national repair centers, auto dealers, service stations and both private and public sector accounts. The company’s DIY customers are primarily served over-the-counter at the company’s global stores or digitally.
The company’s Automotive network consists of over one million customer locations, including installers, fleet, government, and major accounts. The company has diversity amongst its customer base with no specific customer type representing an outsized concentration of the company’s customer business. The company’s Automotive segment operates in a large and fragmented market with a total addressable market greater than $200 billion.
The company’s Automotive distribution network provides access to hundreds of thousands of replacement parts (other than body parts and tires) and accessory items for substantially all motor vehicle makes and models, including hybrid and electric vehicles, trucks, SUVs, buses, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, and for small engines, farm equipment, marine equipment and heavy duty equipment. The company supplies certain equipment and parts used by repair shops, service stations, fleet operators, automobile and truck dealers, leasing companies, bus and truck lines, mass merchandisers, farms, and individuals who perform their own maintenance and parts installation.
The majority of products distributed in North America are under the NAPA name, a mark licensed to the company by NAPA, which is important to the sales and marketing of these products. In Australasia and Europe, products are distributed under several brand names, including many of the national brands, as well as the NAPA name. The company’s Automotive operations have access to approximately 800,000 different parts and related supply items.
Regional Operations & Products
In North America, the company’s U.S. operations are headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and the company’s Canadian operations are headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. The company distributes the majority of products in the U.S. and Canada under the NAPA name, which is important to the company’s sales and marketing efforts. The company goes to market in North America primarily through company-owned and independent auto part stores, heavy vehicle stores, and specialty paint and equipment stores. The company’s North American auto parts stores sell a comprehensive range of automotive parts, including brakes, batteries, filters, engine components, tools, accessories, and fluids. Some locations offer custom services, such as paint mixing, hydraulic hose assembly, battery testing, and key cutting.
The company’s heavy vehicle stores sell parts, accessories, tools and equipment for servicing heavy duty and diesel vehicles. The company operates service and mechanical repair centers for heavy vehicles. The company serves the heavy vehicle market under the banners Traction, TruckPro, TW, and Cadel. In Canada, the company’s specialty stores operate paint and body care equipment and supply under the banner NAPA/CMAX and high-quality replacement parts and lubricants for imported vehicles under the banners Altrom and Auto-Camping. The company’s online service in North America, NAPA online, provides a platform for customers to browse, purchase, and have automotive products delivered to their homes or businesses. Separately, the company provides a NAPA Auto Care program across the U.S. and Canada for independent repair shop centers to increase visibility and receive part discounts and other benefits. The company offers technical expertise by training and employing knowledgeable staff who can provide technical assistance, product recommendations, and guidance on automotive repairs and maintenance; and the company organizes DIY workshops and training sessions to educate customers on automotive repair and maintenance tasks.
The company’s services also include up to date parts cataloging (including the use of electronic NAPA Auto Parts catalogs) and stock adjustments through a continuous parts classification system which, as initiated by the company, allows independently-owned stores to return certain merchandise on a scheduled basis. The company offers its NAPA Auto Parts stores various management aids, marketing aids and service on topics, such as inventory control, cost analysis, accounting procedures, group insurance and retirement benefit plans, as well as marketing conferences and seminars, sales and advertising manuals and training programs. The company has developed and refined an inventory classification system to determine the most advantageous distribution center and auto parts store inventory levels for automotive parts stocking based on automotive registrations, usage rates, production statistics, technological advances, including predictive analytics, and other similar factors. This system, which undergoes continuous analytical review, is an integral part of the company’s inventory control procedures and comprises an important feature of the inventory management services that the company makes available to its NAPA Auto Parts stores.
In Europe, the company operates Alliance Automotive Group (‘AAG’), headquartered in London, England. The company serves thousands of vehicle repairers, body shops and auto-centers from over 2,000 distributor outlets across Europe, supported by a logistics infrastructure of national and regional distribution centers. The company’s distributor outlets include company-owned and independent auto part stores and outlets, heavy vehicle outlets, and online and specialty outlets. The company’s European banners include Groupauto, Precisium and Pièces Auto in France; Coler, Busch, Hennig and Knoll in Germany; Groupauto, UAN, FPS Distribution, APEC Braking, BTN Turbo, Platinum International, Alliance Automotive U.K. Subsidiaries, and J&S Automotive Distributors in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland; PartsPoint in Belgium and the Netherlands; Lausan, Soulima and Gaudi in Spain and Portugal; and GroupAuto in Poland. In France, the company also provides parts and services for heavy duty and diesel vehicles under the Todd banner and the company operates Back2Car, which distributes recycled car parts. In the Netherlands and Belgium, the company offers programs for repair shops that want to join the company’s installer network to increase their visibility and brand awareness while remaining independent. Separately in Europe, the company operates WinParts, an online platform for customers to browse, purchase, and have automotive products delivered to their homes or businesses.
In Australia and New Zealand, the company operates GPC Asia Pacific – the region’s largest automotive aftermarket parts supplier. The company resells and distributes automotive replacement parts, accessories and related tools and equipment through a network of company-owned retail stores and advanced distribution centers. GPC Asia Pacific operates three main lines of business: Automotive Australia, Automotive New Zealand and Two Wheel Division. Automotive Australia and Automotive New Zealand operate the company’s auto parts stores in Australia and New Zealand under two banners: (i) Repco, which operates a nationwide dual-format store network across both countries, providing parts, equipment, tools, batteries, technology, and oil to both trade and retail customers; and (ii) NAPA Auto Parts, which offers automotive electrical and mechanical parts to trade, fleet, industrial, commercial and mining specialist customers. Both Repco and NAPA compliment their network with the market's leading digital capability, providing the company’s customers with a seamless omni-channel transactional capability.
The company’s Two Wheel Division wholesales and retails motorcycle parts, apparel and accessories, with the market's leading range of the world’s most respected motorcycle brands, many of which are supplied under exclusive distribution agreements. Two Wheel Division operates two wholesale banners (McLeod Accessories and John Titman Racing), and also operates Australia's largest and fastest growing motorcycle accessories and apparel retailer (AMX Super Stores). GPC Asia Pacific also operates a number of direct-to-consumer digital businesses, including Sparesbox, STEDI and 4WD247.
Distribution Network
The company’s independently-owned and company-owned stores located in every region are sourced by the company’s distribution networks. Both types of automotive stores sell to a wide variety of customers in the automotive aftermarket. The company strategically locates its stores close to installers, which are the company’s primary customers, and the company delivers products to them routinely throughout each business day by truck. Traditional over-the-counter retail sales make up a smaller part of the company’s overall business and vary by geography.
During 2023, the company expanded its network with the addition of 173 net new stores during the year.
Installer Networks
The company provides programs for repair centers to join regional networks to leverage the company’s branding and supply network to increase their visibility and awareness while remaining independent. The largest of these is the company’s independent NAPA Auto Care center network in the U.S. and Canada, which includes over 18,000 locations nationwide.
NAPA
The company is the sole member of the National Automotive Parts Association, LLC a voluntary association formed in 1925 to promote the distribution of automotive parts for its members. NAPA, which neither buys nor sells automotive parts, functions as a trade association that develops marketing concepts and programs for its sole member.
Among the automotive products purchased by the company from various manufacturers for distribution are certain lines designated, cataloged, advertised and promoted as ‘NAPA’ lines.
The company uses the federally registered trademark NAPA as part of the trade name of many of the company’s distribution centers and parts stores in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The company funds NAPA’s advertising program, which is designed to increase public recognition of the NAPA name and to promote NAPA product lines.
The company is a party to, together with the former members of NAPA, a consent decree entered by the Federal District Court in Detroit, Michigan, on May 4, 1954. The consent decree enjoins certain practices under the federal antitrust laws, including the use of exclusive agreements with manufacturers of automotive parts, allocation or division of territories among the company and former NAPA members, fixing of prices or terms of sale for such parts among such members, and agreements to adhere to any uniform policy in selecting parts customers or determining the number and location of, or arrangements with, auto parts customers.
Competition
The company’s automotive competitors include AutoZone, Inc., O-Reilly Auto Parts, Inc., Advance Auto Parts, Inc., LKQ Corporation and Bapcor, among many others.
Industrial segment
The company’s Industrial segment operates in both North America and Australasia through the company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries Motion Industries, Inc. (‘Motion’), headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and Motion Asia Pacific, headquartered in Sydney, Australia. The company’s Industrial business offers replacement parts and solutions to maintenance, repair and operation (‘MRO’) customers and original equipment manufacturer (‘OEM’) customers. The company’s Industrial segment operates in a large and fragmented market with a total addressable market of greater than $150 billion. In 2023, the company’s Industrial segment served more than 200,000 MRO and OEM customers in all types of industries with more than 900,000 customer locations. The company’s Industrial segment services all manufacturing and processing industries with access to a database of over 19 million parts.
The nature of Motion's business demands the maintenance of adequate inventories and the ability to promptly meet critical delivery requirements. Virtually all of the products distributed are installed by the customer or used in plant and facility maintenance activities. Most orders are filled immediately from existing stock and deliveries are normally made within 24 hours of order receipt. The majority of all sales are on open account. Motion has ongoing sales agreements with many of its national account customers, which collectively, represent approximately 45% of its annual sales volume.
Operations & Products
Motion is a premier industrial solutions company in North America and Australasia (including Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore) due to the company’s superior customer service, value-added services and over 19 million replacement parts. The company’s product and solution offerings include MRO and OEM support, specialty stores, on-site solutions offerings, service and repair offerings, and e-business assistance. The company distributes a large range of MRO and OEM industrial products, such as replacement parts and related supplies, such as abrasives, adhesives, sealants and tape, bearings, chemicals, cutting tools, electrical, facility maintenance, hose and fittings, hydraulics, janitorial, mechanical power transmission, pneumatics, process pumps and equipment, safety, seals and gaskets, and tools and testing instruments. The sectors the company operates in include aggregate and cement, automotive, chemical and allied products, equipment and machinery, equipment rental and leasing, fabricated metals, food and beverage, iron and steel, lumber and wood, oil and gas, pulp and paper, and rubber products. The company has strategically targeted specialty industries in power generation, alternative energy, government, transportation, ports, and an electric vehicle battery category based on increasing opportunities presented by the build-out of new battery manufacturing facilities across North America.
The Industrial business provides customers with supply chain efficiencies achieved through the company’s on-site solutions offering. This service provides inventory management, asset repair and tracking, vendor managed inventory (‘VMI’), as well as radio frequency identification (‘RFID’) asset management of the customer’s inventory. Industrial also provides a wide range of services and repairs, such as gearbox and fluid power assembly and repair, process pump assembly and repair, hydraulic drive shaft repair, electrical panel assembly and repair, and hose and gasket manufacture and assembly. Motion is also a leading supplier or automation products and motion control solutions in North America through Motion AI. Separately, Motion provides leading e-business capabilities through MiSupplierConnect, a highly developed supply chain with vendor partnerships and connectivity that provides integration between the company’s information technology network and suppliers’ systems, creating numerous benefits for both the supplier and customer. These services and supply chain efficiencies assist Motion in providing the cost savings that many of its customers require and expect.
Distribution Network
The company’s Industrial distribution centers serve the branches and service centers located throughout the geographic regions in which the company operates. The branches and service centers, in turn, sell to MRO and OEM customers in all types of industries across North America and Australasia.
In North America, the company’s Industrial business stocks or distributes more than 19 million different items purchased from more than 47,000 different suppliers. Its service centers provide hydraulic, hose and mechanical repairs for customers. Approximately 47% of total industrial product purchases in 2023 were made from the company’s top 50 strategic suppliers. Sales are generated from facilities in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canada.
In Australasia, the company’s Industrial business operates a network of distribution centers, branches and service centers across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore as of December 31, 2023.
Competition
The company’s Industrial competitors include Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc., Fastenal Company, and W.W. Grainger, Inc, among many others.
History
Genuine Parts Company was founded in 1928. The company, a Georgia corporation, was incorporated in 1928.
