Advance Auto Parts is a retail company with its headquarters in Roanoke, Virginia. It is a company that deals in automotive accessories and parts throughout the country. Advance Auto Parts, along with Carquest, operate over 1,300 individually owned stores and 5,200 company-owned stores throughout the country. The company employs over 70 thousand employees and is the only auto parts business with the largest number of stores owned in the country.
The journey of Advance Auto Parts began in the year 1932 when Arthur Taubman bought the Advance Stores from the Pep Boys. Advance Stores had one store in Lynchburg, Virginia and two stores in Roanoke, Virginia at that point in time. The biggest expansion period came for Advance Auto Parts in 1998. This is when the enterprise got the rest of the operations of Western Auto, a general store retailer in auto parts. Sears, Roebuck, and Co., in the year 1987, took over a majority portion of the operations of Western Auto. In 2001, a regional retail chain called Carport Auto Parts, which had 29 stores across Mississippi and Alabama, was acquired by Advance Auto Parts.
Discount Auto Parts Inc. was a regional auto parts company with more than 600 stores spread across Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. They were acquired by Advance Auto Parts on November 28th, 2001. Advance Auto Parts was listed as a public trading company on the common stock of the New York Stock Exchange and was abbreviated as AAP after the above collaboration.
By the time 2001 concluded, Advance Auto Parts had more than 2,400 stores across 38 states. To attain 57 Trak Auto stores in Washington DC, eastern Maryland, and Northern Virginia, Advance Auto Parts even got a bankruptcy court’s approval in July 2002.
Advance Auto Parts bought Auto Part International Inc. in the year 2005, which operated 202 stores along the Atlantic Seaboard. As of today, Auto Part International Inc. continues its operations just like a separate segment within the Advance Auto Parts Company. Advance Auto Parts also bought General Parts Inc., along with Carquest Canada and WorldPac, by paying a price of $2.04 billion in 2013.
Advance Auto Parts was even the chief and titular sponsor for the “Monster Jam” and was the sponsor for a truck named the Advance Auto Parts Grinder between 2010 and 2013. In 2015 and 2016, Advance Auto Parts sponsored Alex Bowman’s cars, NASCAR, JR Motorsports, and even Tommy Baldwin Racing. In 2017, at Daytona International Speedway, Advance Auto Parts was the titular sponsor for the Advance Auto Parts Clash exhibition race.
The shares of Advance Auto Parts are primarily held by the institutional investors as of 2017. The major institutional investors are Wellington Management Group, The Vanguard Group, Lazard, State Street Corporation, and BlackRock.
