NAPA now also drives improved delivery times with hotshot deliveries using DoorDash to help shops turn bays
Denver—Genuine Parts Company, the parent company of NAPA Auto Parts, recently acquired two privately owned NAPA stores in Wellington and Fort Collins, Colo., owned by Frank Parts, of the Brian Frank family. Frank Parts, which also operates several NAPA stores in Nebraska and Wyoming, had purchased the two stores from the Heilbrun family approximately three years ago, who had them for more than a decade.
“GPC has made a strategic move to go around to stores that are independently owned to offer — or at least have a conversation — to purchase, if they want to get out of the market, retire, or whatever the case may be,” Tony Ralston, district manager for NAPA Denver, told Aftermarket Matters Weekly. “We’re not going out to try and change the world, but in this particular case, Brian Frank has the vast majority of his business in Scottsbluff, Kimball, and Alliance, Nebraska, and Torrington, Wyoming. It was a long drive for their staff to manage the Fort Collins and Wellington locations, and they felt it would be better suited for GPC to take them on.”
GPC’s acquisition is not isolated to Northern Colorado’s Front Range, as there have been similar moves across the U.S. “This has been a recent shift in GPC’s thought process. But don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of strong independent owners in Colorado,” Ralston said, noting Fort Collin’s area University Auto Parts, which has about 11 stores, and Rock Parts Co., owned by the Pelleys family serving the Castle Rock area toward the south, to name a just a few.
“For the longest time, the jobber was one of the strongest suits for GPC — and they still are — but where it makes sense, GPC sees opportunity to take on locations in metro markets. There are operations out there that could be doing better, and GPC can identify those, but it’s not a mandatory thing. Brian Frank very well could have decided not to sell and continue on, which would’ve been fine.”
Further Expansion
In addition to the acquisition, Ralston stated that GPC is considering a potential new store in south Fort Collins and is actively searching for a suitable location. “It’s certainly in our plans, but obviously, it’s all about what we can find, how big the building is and all of those things. Our goal is to have at least a minimum of one more, possibly two.”
One of the more recent new store locations was in Reunion last year, close to Denver International Airport, which is an area that’s experienced significant population growth, much like elsewhere in the Front Range and Denver-metro area. “One of things we identified were all the rooftops popping up and we saw the opportunity for us to capture part of that market.”
GPC is also similarly looking for expansion in Golden. South Golden Road alone, along a short stretch, already features an O’Reilly’s, Advance Auto Parts and a new AutoZone presently under construction. “We’re looking exactly right there, as well. The Golden market is exploding, but it’s really grown more north along Highway 93. We’re in conversations currently with a landlord there.”
New Hotshot Deliveries with DoorDash
Another recent NAPA initiative is using DoorDash for parts deliveries. NAPA has “Delivery Tracker,” which is essentially provides a “live picture” of where deliveries are going. NAPA has also has “ramped up” its Service Level Agreement (SLA) with customers to improve service and help them turn bays.
“Our Platinum customers have an SLA of 30 minutes. For us to get 80-85 percent on-time delivery to each of those customers, we have to have efficiencies and processes in place to accomplish it. Delivery Tracker helps us do that. But we now also have our relatively recent implementation of DoorDash, which has been a game-changer for us and other districts across the country.”
He notes that there are limitations, as DoorDash can’t carry items more than 50 pounds and has a delivery radius of no more than 25 miles. “They can pick up a part and deliver it in a one-shot deal, as opposed to our drivers, who will make around three consecutive deliveries before returning to the store. Considering time of day and traffic patterns, a delivery could take up to an hour, so by using DoorDash, we can ensure our customers are getting a 30-minute delivery 80-85 percent or more most of the time.”
Ralston stressed, however, that not all customers wish to use DoorDash. “They prefer the personal touch we have with our drivers, many of whom see the same customers every day — they actually see them more than we do. It’s not part of the business we’re willing to walk away from, DoorDash is just a supplement, but by using them, we’ve been able to identify some inefficiencies and how we do things inside and how we get our parts out the door.
“By using both, we’ve certainly ramped up our service and expectations for the customer.”
And what can customers expect now with the acquisition of the two Fort Collins stores? “Once we get them staffed, we’ll have our processes in place — because everybody does it differently — and standardize our on-time delivery.”
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