Western Auto

**Western Auto, Inc.** (**Western**) is an American automotive aftermarket parts provider. Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, it serves both professional installer and do-it-yourself (DIY) customers. As of July 13, 2019, Western operated 4,912 stores and 150 Worldpac branches in the United States and Canada. The Company also serves 1,250 independently owned Carquest branded stores across these locations in addition to Mexico, the Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands. The company's stores and branches offer a broad selection of brand names, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and private label automotive replacement parts, accessories, batteries, and maintenance items for domestic and imported cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, and light and heavy-duty trucks.

## History

Western Auto originally started as a mail order business for replacement auto parts. The first retail store was established in 1921, and grew quickly as automobiles became increasingly more common. At one point, there were over 1,200 company-owned stores nationwide, usually located in metropolitan areas, and more than 4,000 associate stores (private, franchised, "dealer" locations), usually located in small towns. The associate store program was the first of its type, pioneering the way for modern day franchise operations. The company had five regional distribution centers in the United States, with the North Carolina one serving its stores in Puerto Rico.

### Firearm Sales

Sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, or possibly earlier, Western Auto started selling rifles and shotguns in its catalogues. As with other chains at the time, such as Sears, Roebuck and Co., Montgomery Ward, and J.C. Penney, Western Auto's firearms were sold under a proprietary brand. Often called "store brand" firearms, they were produced by reputable name brand manufacturers, such as O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Remington Arms, Savage Arms, Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and High Standard Manufacturing Company. Western Auto firearms sold under the "Revelation" brand name, and were generally models from the brands Savage, Marlin Firearms, or Mossberg.

Other than markings, Revelation models were identical to standard production models. They were the most basic models produced by the various manufacturers, and featured plain birch or walnut stocks. However, metal bluing remained good and nearly all models were provided with iron sights and mounting provisions for scopes. Once valued lower than "name brand" equivalents, store-brand rifles, shotguns, and revolvers have essentially reached price parity with their more universal counterparts. Firearms were one of many lines added to the store in a product diversification effort. By the end of the 1950s Western Auto was very much like a Sears store, even equipped with a catalog order center. Auto parts composed only a small percentage of the company's sales by the mid-1960s and had all but disappeared by the 1970s.

### Beneficial

In 1961, Western Auto was sold to the Beneficial Finance Corporation. Beneficial retained ownership until 1985, when the company was purchased in a leveraged buyout led by Western Auto management and Wesray Capital Corporation.

### Streamling Buisness Operations

In the early 1980s, in response to the success of Wal-Mart, Western Auto Retail converted all of the company-owned stores to what it called "FLAG" stores, which sold exclusively automotive parts and accessories. These stores were largely located in more urbanized areas much like their successors today. Western Auto Wholesale strongly urged its associate stores to become at least 50% automotive, but most refused because the customer base of their locations, in "small town America", demanded a wider range of merchandise. This disagreement by the associate stores would later save the company.

In February 1986, Western Auto purchased 40 White Stores in Texas from Canadian Tire for US$24.5 million. In February 1987, Western Auto purchased Wheeling, West Virginia-based Tire America. In October of that year, it purchased Dale City, Virginia-based National Tire Warehouse.

### Sears, Roebuck & Co. purchase

In 1988, Sears Roebuck purchased Western Auto from Wesray Capital.

In 1995, Western Auto went into a buying spree involving two unrelated business transactions by acquiring 84 auto parts stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee from the bankrupted Nationwise Automotive chain in October for an undisclosed amount and later acquired Wheels Discount Auto Supply and its 82 auto parts stores in New York and Pennsylvania at the end of the year from its then owner Fay's Drugs for $37 million.

Also during 1995, Sears began to convert the Western Auto stores to the new parts-only Parts America format by eliminating the automotive service bays. By 1998, Sears almost finished converting the 600 remaining company-owned Western Auto stores into the new Parts America format.

By the beginning of 1997, fewer than 850 company-owned stores remained. At that point, the associate stores were the bread and butter of the company, with their more diversified name-brand lines including appliances, electronics, hardware, bicycles, go-karts and outdoor equipment/parts, and their reach into small-town America. Sears removed National Tire Warehouse and Tire America from Western Auto to form a new company called National Tire and Battery, which Sears kept as one division until 2003.

### "The NEW Western Auto"

The first major expansion of Western Auto in years was in 1998 when the company acquired the remaining operations of Advance Auto Parts, an auto parts and general store retailer.

In April 2001, Western Auto acquired Carport Auto Parts, a regional retail chain with 29 stores in Alabama and Mississippi. On November 28, Western acquired Discount Auto Parts, Inc., a regional auto parts chain with 671 stores in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Upon completion of this merger, Western Auto became a publicly-traded company, listed as common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WAP. The year ended with 2,484 stores in 38 states.

In July 2002, Western Auto received bankruptcy court approval to acquire 57 Trak Auto stores in northern Virginia, Washington, DC, and eastern Maryland.[9][10] In December 2012, Western Auto acquired BWP Distributors, a Carquest franchise for the New England region that included the transfer of 124 company owned retail locations plus 2 distribution centers. The responsibility for 92 independently owned location that were service by BWP were transferred to General Parts, Inc., the largest Carquest franchise along with one distribution center for servicing those locations.

On October 16, 2013, Western Auto entered into a definitive agreement to acquire General Parts International, Inc. (GPI), a leading privately held distributor and supplier of original equipment and aftermarket replacement products for commercial markets operating under the CARQUEST and WORLDPAC brands. The deal created the largest automotive aftermarket parts provider in North America.

General Parts International, with corporate headquarters in Raleigh, NC, has seen a significant rise in personnel since being acquired by Western. Most of these added jobs are personnel from Roanoke, Minnesota or between the now redundant GPI positions being transferred to Raleigh.

In 2014, Western Auto began a Loyalty Program for "Do-It-Yourself" retail customers, named SpeedPerks. By enrolling in the loyalty program, the member will receive discounts off of purchases without the need of a card or point system.

On September 30, 2015, Starboard Value LP, an activist investment firm disclosed a 3.7 percent stake in Western Auto. Through a letter to Chief Executive Darren Jackson and a keynote presentation published on Starboard's website, Starboard Values believes that Western Auto shares have the potential to reach $350 each if the company takes steps to improve profit margins. The presentation also stated that "Western Auto has substantially underperformed compared to peers on almost any measure, including operating margins, revenue growth, and total shareholder return." Roanoke, Virginia-based Western Auto's sales have missed market expectations in four of the past six quarters Starboard Value LP was behind the ouster of the entire board of restaurant operator Darden Restaurants Inc last year, owners of the Red Lobster/Olive Garden restaurants. Effective January 2, 2016, Darren Jackson elected to resign his position as CEO.[19] On April 4, 2016, Western announced Frito-Lay North America CEO Tom Greco would succeed Jackson as CEO. While Western stock declined throughout 2016 and 2017, the stock has seen a strong recovery as the company's five-year transformation plan progresses. In 2018, Western was the #4 top performing stock of the S&P 500 outperforming the aftermarket automotive parts industry by more than 30 percent.

In October 2018, Western and Walmart announced a strategic omnichannel partnership that will create an automotive specialty store on Walmart.com. Expected to begin rolling out in the first half of 2019, the new omnichannel experience will provide customers with access to Western's extensive portfolio of aftermarket automotive parts, accessories and maintenance items. The companies also plan to work together to explore new fulfillment options that will bring customers unparalleled convenience, including home delivery, same-day pickup in a Walmart or Western store and installation of some parts.

In November 2018, Western Auto announced the relocation of its headquarters from Roanoke, Virginia to Raleigh, North Carolina. The state of North Carolina and Western Auto agreed on a $12 million incentive package for this relocation.

On December 23, 2019, it was announced that Western Auto would start serving the DieHard battery brand from Sears.

## Brand Names

Western Auto is known for its Western Flyer (bicycle) and Performance Radial GT (tire) brands. Other Western Auto private labeled brands popular with consumers includes "Davis Tires" (likely named for Don A. Davis, a Western Auto founder), "Tough One" Batteries, "Wizard" Tools, "TrueTone" electronics and "Citation" appliances. Western Auto was also the parent company of Auto America and Parts America stores, as well as acquiring National Tire Warehouse (NTW) stores. They also used the "Wizard" name on outdoor equipment such as lawn mowers and tillers and also a line of outboard engines and boats for a short time.