 Consolidation was the name of the game in the automotive aftermarket last year as many prominent distributors were acquired by our biggest auto chains. In fact, it was admittedly difficult finding 50 distributors with retail stores to include in this report. Advance Auto Parts had a busy year, acquiring Lappen Auto Supply’s 19 stores and Autopart International, Inc.’s 61 stores. CSK Auto acquired last year’s No. 11 distributor, Murray’s Discount Auto Store, which had over 100 locations. In addition, The Parts House acquired Automotive Parts and Machine, Parts Depot Inc. acquired Tropical International Corp. and O’Reilly Automotive acquired Midwest Auto Parts Distributors. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, so despite the fact that the Top 10 auto chains are in the same spots as last year, they definitely experienced change in 2005. As for the service sector, although technicians have had some issues to deal with — technician shortages and Right to Repair legislation, to name a few — they are working hard every day to the benefit of the entire industry. This year, we decided to tweak the service portion of our Top 100 Report to focus on service dealers across the country that are operating successfully and are on the forefront of the auto service industry in their neck of the woods. As a result, our Top 50 Service Dealers report includes many independent repair facilities from across the country, most of which are expanding this year through locations, bays or services. We’ve also included a few franchises, fleet companies and rental car corporations that have grown in the past year. Click on the links below to download the 2006 reports. To view the 2005 report, click here. Anyone wishing to be considered for our 2007 Top 100 Report can fill out the appropriate forms for distributors and service dealers.
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