Herb Godschalk, co-president of Fisher Auto Parts, has announced the acquisition of 10 Hoffman Brothers company stores and a warehouse based in South Bend, Indiana. Hoffman Brothers has served Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan and surrounding counties since 1929 and is managed by Butch Walsh.
“Once the decision was made to sell the business, we started searching for potential suitors and quickly learned that Fisher Auto Parts was the best choice for our company,” said Walsh. “Fisher’s commitment to the professional installer with expanded availability of quality parts, excellent delivery service and FEDLINK (B2B ordering system) gives the capable Hoffman team additional tools to enhance customer service in this very competitive market.”
Commenting on future growth of Fisher Auto Parts, Godschalk said, “We believe in the adage that no matter what our lot in life, we should build something on it. While there are much larger competitors, due to the highly capable team that we are honored to work with, we can be proud of our past results as we strive for future annual growth of at least 20 percent. We have significantly increased store inventories and experienced many consecutive years of growth.
“Future growth provides greater efficiencies and tremendous opportunity. We are prudently positioned for continued growth within existing locations and plan on adding over 50 stores through geographically contiguous acquisitions or new greenfield locations within two years. To help facilitate this expansion, we have invested heavily in increased distribution center space, automation and efficiencies, thereby significantly reducing distribution center expenses by over five percent of sales during the past decade.
“We are especially grateful to all of our channel partners including customers, suppliers, APSG associates and, in particular, team members for their unwavering dedication to outstanding customer service. We sincerely appreciate everyone helping the company surpass our past goals while remaining a financially conservative, privately-owned family business.”
The founding member of Federated Auto Parts Distributors, Fisher Auto Parts is a member of the Automotive Parts Services Group and now has nearly 500 company-owned locations, with more than 110 independent jobbers in 18 states. The company continues a steady growth strategy by more than quadrupling in size over the last decade through a combination of same store sales, new stores and acquisitions. Founded in 1929 by Blair Coiner, Fisher Auto Parts currently has approximately 5,300 employees.
