Denver--The Genuine Parts Co. (GPC) has chosen Denver as the U.S. anchor for its Canadian heavy-duty truck parts store, Traction. The GPC-owned store that opened in September is the first of its kind in the contiguous 48 states and one of 87 Traction stores in Canada and Alaska.
"Denver is the fifth-largest heavy-duty market in the United States," said Brian Roach, NAPA Denver Distribution Center (DC) district manager. The Denver store, which shares a building with the NAPA Denver DC, is the first of several Traction stores planned to open across the country in the next five years, he said, adding that in the near future it will be a stand-alone store.
Although the NAPA Denver DC has carried heavy-duty truck parts for the last five years, the new Traction store allows it to offer greater breadth and depth of inventory, said Chuck Centers, Traction store manager, which includes tractor-trailer and suspension parts and accessories.
Located at the NAPA Denver DC on U.S. 224, the Traction store makes Denver DC a one-stop shop for commercial fleet customers, said Josh Joerns, Traction sales manager. He said the store's $850,000 inventory includes several Canadian parts lines that have never been sold in the United States.
Joerns and Scott Carlson, NAPA Denver DC general sales manager, seem to be the perfect pair to introduce the heavy-duty truck store and its unique parts lines to Denver because they both opened a Traction store in Anchorage three years ago.
"Josh is the conduit between the first store in Anchorage and the Traction DC in Atlanta," Carlson said. Roach was instrumental in the logistics of getting the store up and running, he said, adding that that Joerns is an asset to the new store because of his in-depth product knowledge of Traction's lines.
Joerns said the new Canadian parts lines being introduced through Traction are: Star Warning Systems (SWS), which include police lights, a line of strobe lights, and emergency lights; Jetco, a line of mining, heavy-duty, and vehicle lighting systems; and HD Plus, a private-label brand of new and remanufactured steering, suspension, and air-brake parts.
"Many major fleets also have pickup trucks and vehicles as part of their fleet," Carlson noted. Traction counter personnel have access to NAPA's inventory as well, he said. "It's available to everybody who walks through this door. There's $17 million in inventory on the other side of the wall."
Carlson was quick to point out that customer service will distinguish their store from competitors. "If you don't have the service, you don't have anything," he said. "We have good professional people on the counter."
The crew at the Denver Traction store said they're initially focusing on servicing fleets in the Denver metro area but are being cautious with their approach.
"People don't know what Traction is," Roach said. "We have to educate our customers on that." So far market response has been positive, he said.
"We want to ramp up slow so our customer service doesn't fail," Joerns said. "We have to earn business one customer at a time."
As future U.S. Traction stores wait in the wings, the Denver store is being watched closely, Roach said. "They're all waiting for us to get this up and running," he said. "Other stores are looking at this and planning."