NPW’s Holds Ninth-Annual Million-Dollar Dinner in Miami

There aren’t many events in the automotive aftermarket – or in any market, really – like National Performance Warehouse’s (NPW) Million-Dollar Dinner. For the ninth time, the annual black-tie affair was held in Miami the weekend of Jan. 28 to honor the company’s suppliers who’ve reached at least $1 million with the auto parts distribution business.

This year’s dinner featured a record 41 million-dollar vendors, up from an inaugural nine charter members from 2012, doing business with the family-owned NPW. As has become tradition, vendors were treated to cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, a surf-and-turf dinner and bananas foster for dessert. Held on the 40th floor of the EAST hotel in the Brickell section of Miami, attendees were treated to an eagle-eye’s view of the Miami skyline and Biscayne Bay.

This year marked the return of the annual Million-Dollar Vendor dinner following last year’s hiatus due to COVID-19.

***Treating its vendors like part of the family: Chris, Larry, Hilda and John Pacey at the annual black-tie Million-Dollar Vendor awards dinner.***

“Yes, there have been challenges in the supply chain, but at the end of the day we’re in this together,” said Chris Pacey, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NPW. “We’re getting through this together. We want to be here in the future, we want to keep growing, and we want you to keep growing with us. At NPW we speak a lot about family, and that’s near and dear to our hearts. Some of you have been here since the inaugural year, some of you are new to the family … but we stay as a family and we grow as a family.We do it together.”

This year, NPW also recognized individual suppliers at the $5 million, $10 million and $15 million levels as well.

“In spite of all the supply chain issues we’ve all had, it’s been a phenomenal year,” said Steve Berman, CEO of Dorman Products, which hit the $10 million mark. “Next year if it isn’t a $15 million-dollar club we’re in I’ll be really disappointed.”

DRiV led the pack as a $15 million partner for 2022.

“In this room, two years ago at the last dinner we said we wanted to be the first vendor to be at $10 million. Now, I’m honored for our team to be at $15 million, and we look forward to being the first group to hit $20 million in 2023,” said Jeff Koviak, vice president and general manager of DRiV, to a reaction of friendly, competitive shouts and applause.

Larry Pacey, CEO of NPW, said the vendors in attendance added up to more than $250 billion in revenue worldwide.

The complete list of 2022 Million-Dollar Vendors:
(* indicates a vendor’s inaugural year)

• ACDelco

• Alliance Parts Warehouse

• ARP*

• ATP/Pioneer

• Baldwin Filters

• BBB Industries

• Bosch

• CARDONE Industries

• Cific Auto*

• CURT

• Deka

• Dorman Products ($10M vendor)

• Driv ($15M vendor)

• DuraGo*

• Edelbrock Group ($5M vendor)

• Energy Suspension

• Engine Pro*

• First Brands ($5M vendor)

• Gates ($5M vendor)

• Hastings Piston Rings*

• Highline Warren Distributing*

• Holley/MSD ($5M vendor)

• MAHLE

• Melling Engine Parts ($5M vendor)

• Motive Gear*

• NGK

• Plews & Edelmann*

• Redhorse*

• SBI*

• Standard Motor Products ($10M vendor)

• Timken

• TrakMotive

• Truck Hero

• TYC

• Silv-O-Lite/United Engine & Machine Co.*

• US Motorworks*

• Valvoline

• WAI

• Warren Distribution*

• Wilmar Corp.

• WIX

“Having the chance to come back in 2021 to get re-acquainted with your family and renew business relationships – that has been the best part of the evening,” said Jeff Blocher, vice president of sales at WIX.

“Overall, we couldn’t be more happy with our relationship and partnership with NPW, and we’re excited about the future,” added Colby Florea, senior director of sales at Gates, following dinner.

***JC Washbish, vice president of sales and marketing for the Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance, and his father John Washbish, president/CEO, served as keynote speakers for the event.***

John and JC Washbish, president/CEO and vice president of sales and marketing for the Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance, respectively, served as keynote speakers for the event, and following dinner, Larry provided guests with an update on NPW’s growth over the past year. He said last year’s CAGR was 22% and this year’s was 24%.

Two major NPW accomplishments were featured during the presentation: The acquisition of Engine Performance Warehouse Inc. (EPWI), and NPW moving its warehouse headquarters to a new, state-of-the-art facility in Hialeah, located in Miami-Dade County in Florida.

NPW acquired EPWI, which Larry said is the largest engine distributor in North America, in December 2020. NPW has already merged EPWI’s Anaheim operation into NPW’s Gardenia, Florida, location, as well as EPWI’s Phoenix location into NPW’s Phoenix operation, and is currently working to integrate the rest of EPWI’s business into its own. With the

acquisition, Larry said NPW now operates in four time zones.

“Our goal is to be next-day UPS to any zip code in the United States. We’ve pretty much got the country filled out, but we have some holes, so that’s where we’re trying to fill in 2022,” Larry said.

NPW signed the deal to move into the new warehouse, which is about 200,000 square feet (12,000 square feet of office space) last January, and Larry said he anticipates having about 120 employees when the location is fully operational. The building features a state-of-the-art conveyor system and loading/shipping dock design, and the company hopes it will be completely moved into the building by the end of Q1 2022.

The fun didn’t stop after Friday’s dinner, as events in Miami continued Saturday evening with the FAST Expo Customer and Vendor Awards, headlined by professional drifter Kelsey Rowlings and Discovery Channel stars Farmtruck & AZN, who will have been on the air for 10 years as of Feb. 1.

“We are forever grateful for what you guys have created; you’ve paved the path for guys like us … to have a television show, and for people to connect to it is truly a blessing,” AZN said. “We just hope the blessing never ends for us or y’all.”

The FAST Expo Customer and Vendor Awards winners include:

Platinum

National Sunshine Auto Parts (Traditional)

PowerSource Motorsports (Performance)

Clegg Engine (Engine)

Gold

Hi Tech Auto Parts (Traditional)

Race Fittings (Performance)

Valdivia Auto Parts (Traditional)

Bullfrog Performance (Performance)

Silver

Kam Auto Parts (Traditional)

Cabrera Auto Parts (Traditional)

Bronze

Speed & Truck World (Performance)

Westside Auto Parts (Traditional)

New Jersey Auto Parts (Traditional)

Vendor of the Year

DRiV (Traditional)

Holley Performance (Performance)

Rep of the Year

Chick Capoli (Traditional)

John Iannote (Performance)

NPW’s weekend of events continued through Sunday, when an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people attended the NPW FAST Expo Trade show. The trade show featured more than 150 exhibitors, headlined by Kelsey Rowlings and Discovery Channel’s Farmtruck & AZN. Giveaways included TVs, a money booth and discounts. The trade show also featured a car show.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned…this Saturday’s AMN People e-newsletter will feature a photo gallery from this year’s weekend of events.