Genuine Parts Company is a distributor of automotive replacement parts and industrial parts and materials.
The company serves its customers from more than 10,700 locations, primarily in North America, 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.
Segments
The company is organized into two business se...
Genuine Parts Company is a distributor of automotive replacement parts and industrial parts and materials.
The company serves its customers from more than 10,700 locations, primarily in North America, 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.
Segments
The company is organized into two business segments: Automotive Parts Group (“Automotive”) and Industrial Parts Group (“Industrial”). The company’s main Automotive customers are repair and maintenance shops, and the company’s main Industrial customers are businesses operating distribution, manufacturing and production equipment.
Automotive segment
The company’s Automotive segment is the largest global automotive network of parts and autocare. The company distributes automotive parts, accessories and solutions in North America, Europe and Australasia. The company’s Automotive businesses offer extensive inventory depth and assortment, cataloging, marketing, training and other programs to the aftermarket in each of these regions.
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 DIFM and DIY customers represent approximately 80% and 20% of total Automotive sales, respectively, and channel mix varies by geography.
The company’s Automotive network consists of over one million customer locations. The company has diversity amongst its commercial customer base with no specific customer type representing an outsized concentration of its overall business. The company’s Automotive segment operates in large and fragmented markets with a combined total addressable market of over $200 billion. The majority of the automotive aftermarket comprises small, local competitors and its scale, advanced technology, and supply chain efficiency differentiates the company from competitors.
The company’s Automotive distribution network provides access to hundreds of thousands of replacement parts (other than collision parts and tires) and accessory items for substantially all motor vehicle makes and models, including hybrid and electric vehicles, trucks, and SUVs, as well as for buses, motorcycles, farm equipment, and heavy-duty equipment. The company supplies certain equipment parts and technologies used by repair shops, service stations, fleet operators, automobile and truck dealers, leasing companies, farms, and individuals who perform their own maintenance and parts installation.
The majority of products distributed in North America utilize the NAPA brand. In Australasia and Europe, products are distributed under several brand names, including many of the national brands, as well as the NAPA brand. The company’s U.S. Automotive business offers approximately 800,000 different parts and related supply items. These items are purchased from hundreds of different suppliers, with approximately 55% of 2024 automotive parts inventories purchased from 10 major suppliers.
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 is differentiated from many of its North American competitors because its revenues are primarily generated with commercial DIFM customers. The company services the U.S. and Canadian markets 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, and tools and equipment for servicing heavy duty and diesel vehicles, and it operates services and mechanical repair centers for heavy vehicles. The company serves the heavy vehicle market under the banners Traction, TruckPro, TW, and Cadel. In Canada, its 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.
Separately, the company provides a unique NAPA Auto Care program available to independent repair shops and auto care centers across the U.S. and Canada where they can leverage the NAPA brand to increase visibility as well as receive part discounts and other product and technology benefits. It also offers technical expertise by training and employing knowledgeable staff who can provide technical assistance, product recommendations, and guidance on automotive repairs and maintenance, and it organize DIY workshops and training sessions to educate customers on automotive repair and maintenance tasks. The company’s online platform in North America is NAPA online, which provides its customers an option to browse, purchase, and have automotive products bought online and picked up in store or delivered to their homes or businesses. Through NAPA Online, customers can also locate nearby participating NAPA Auto Care locations.
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 selling and promotional tools, inventory control, pricing and cost analysis, 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. Europe is predominantly a DIFM market, with very few over-the-counter sales. The company serves thousands of vehicle repairers, collision shops and auto-centers from over 2,500 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 copany’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 provide 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 has 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: 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 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 repair shops and autocare service centers, which are the company’s primary customers, and the company delivers products to its customers routinely throughout each business day by delivery vehicles. Traditional over-the-counter retail sales make up a smaller part of the company’s overall business and vary by geography.
During 2024, the company expanded its network with the addition of 41 net new stores during the year.
Repair Center 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 19,000 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 (predominantly in Europe) and Bapcor (Australasia), 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 2024, the company’s Industrial segment served more than 190,000 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 provider in North America and Australasia (including Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore) due to its superior customer service, value-added services and access to approximately 18 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, including 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, mining, 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.
Motion provides customers with supply chain efficiencies achieved through the company’s on-site solutions offering. The company’s onsite solutions 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. The company also provides a wide range of services and repairs such as gearbox and fluid power assembly and repair, process pump assembly and repair, drive shaft repair, electrical panel assembly and repair, and hose and gasket manufacture and assembly. Motion is also a leading supplier of 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 its 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, sales are generated from facilities in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canada. Motion has access to approximately 18 million different items which are purchased from more than 45,000 different suppliers. Approximately 46% of total industrial product purchases in 2024 were made from its top 50 strategic suppliers.
In Australasia, the company’s Industrial business operated a network of distribution centers, branches and service centers across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore as of December 31, 2024.
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.
