Genuine Parts Company

Genuine Parts Company is a service organization engaged in the distribution of automotive replacement parts, industrial replacement parts, office products and electrical/electronic materials. 

The Company operates in four: Automotive Parts Group, Industrial Parts Group, Office Products Group and Electrical/Electronic Materials Group. automotive Parts Group distributes automotive parts and accessory items. In addition to over 427,000 available part numbers, the Company offers inventory, cataloguing, marketing, training and other programs in the automotive aftermarket. The Industrial Parts Group is operated as Motion Industries, Inc. (Motion), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company's business was conducted throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico from approximately 2,000 locations. On February 1, 2012, the Company acquired Light Fabrications Inc.

1928: Carlyle Fraser founded GPC with the purchase of Motor Parts Depot in Atlanta, Georgia for $40,000.

1936: About $2 was spent on parts for the average one-year-old car, whereas a three-year-old car required $10 in parts.

1945: Genuine continued to grow during World War II. Consumers again held onto their older cars, sometimes having little choice because automakers were devoting much of their capacity to the war effort. As a result, $19 in parts were bought for the average car.

1948: In the year of its 20th anniversary, the company had $20 million in sales.

1962: The firm owned 97 retail stores and 12 warehouses along the East Coast and in the South and had annual sales of about $80 million.

1972: Expansion outside the United States began when Genuine acquired auto parts distributor Corbetts, Ltd., which was based in Calgary, Alberta.

1976: The company expands into industrial parts with the acquisition of Motion Industries.

1979: The firm bought a Michigan-based industrial parts distributor, Michigan Bearing Company, to expand that segment of its business.

1981: Genuine's sales reached $1.6 billion, of which 63 percent came from the distribution of parts, 22 percent came from industrial replacement parts, and 8 percent from office-supply products.

1982: The system, developed with Data General Corp., cost $24,000 to $30,000 per complete system and grew to include 900 jobbers. Genuine bought General Automotive Parts Corp. of Dallas in a stock swap valued at about $250 million.

1988: Sales for the industrial group were $547 million, with profits of $35.7 million.

1989: Genuine had held a minority stake in UAP, a distributor of auto and industrial parts with annual sales of $555 million.

1995: NAPA entered into an agreement with Penske Corporation to become the exclusive parts supplier for more than 850 Penske Auto Centers.

1996: By year-end, there were 5,700 NAPA stores, 750 of which were owned by Genuine Parts.

1999: Genuine acquired Brittain Brothers, Inc., a NAPA distributor based in Oklahoma City that served more than 190 stores in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas.

2000: Despite continued softness in the automotive aftermarket, Genuine managed to post net sales of $8.37 billion that year, marking 51 straight years of sales gains.

“We strive to be the employer of choice for each of our associates, the supplier of choice for all of our customers, a valued and preferred customer to each of our suppliers, a respected community member, and an investment of choice for all of our shareholders.”

“GPC is very relationship and family-oriented. Starting with our leadership team, people genuinely want to help you succeed and progress.”