Advance to Purchase GPI CARQUEST

[Joe Marconi]

I just read a news feed that says Advance Auto is set to purchase GPI/CARQUEST. This is big news. It looks like this will make Advance Auto Parts the dominant player in the auto parts business, supplying parts to the industry.

 

As many of you may know, Advance purchased BWP/CARQUEST the first of this year, 2013, in my area of the country. From what I see, Advance is making an real effort to understand the independent repair shops and is eager to form an alliance with the shops. We all know they will not give up the retail trade, but this consolidation of two large groups will prove to be a powerful force.

 

Below is a link to the article.

 

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-355355/

[mspecperformance]

Very interesting, I purchase heavily from WorldPac. I wonder if this will have any affect on WP.

[Junior]

I think the purchase of BWP by Advanced at the beginning of the year has yielded pretty solid results so far. I was very skeptical at the beginning but am becoming much more comfortable with the process. Advanced brings massive purchase power and warehousing/distribution muscle to the table. The changes in product lines are ok in some cases, not in others though. So far they have kept on most of the BWP personnel, which has been key. BWP/Carquest has done very well in the wholesale market due to their sales and counter personnel being far superior to the competition. This is something Advanced could not duplicate on their own. The API venture is a miserable failure and despite much lower prices was never able to grab significant market share in the wholesale sector. I believe that is why Advanced became interested in the Carquest brand.

 

For those of us in the northeast that were previously served by BWP I don't think there will be a significant change beyond what has already been set in motion. Worldpac is key for certain parts for us, Volvo and Saab parts they tend to have stock where our other supplies don't and that helps but we just use Worldpac to fill in the gaps where other warehouses fall short. I am not a fan of their WorldSource line, its pretty low quality. In the long run I wouldn't be surprised to see that product line and the API branded products all becoming one low qual/low cost line. There is a market for that stuff, just not at our shop.

[5 Star Auto Spa]

Advance auto parts and CARQUEST are our main 2 suppliers currently for parts. Both seem to have their pro's and con's. Hopefully a merge with these 2 companies will get rid of some of the cons from both companies and reinforce the pros. Just from reading a little blurb from the link to the article, I never realized AutoZone was such a big player in the aftermarket parts. We rarely every purchase parts from AZ.