A PROMINENT auto retailer is axing over 700 locations in the coming months and customers will be forced to shop elsewhere.
The move is being made to improve sales performance amid changes in consumer habits.
GettyAn auto retailer with a 92-year history has confirmed mass closures[/caption]
GettyAdvance Auto Parts will shutter hundreds of stores soon[/caption]
Shane O’Kelly, president and CEO of Advance Auto Parts, confirmed the mass closure plan while speaking to investors about third-quarter results, per a Thursday press release.
“We are charting a clear path forward and introducing a new three-year financial plan, with a focus on executing core retail fundamentals to improve the productivity of all our assets and to create shareholder value,” O’Kelly noted.
The CEO emphasized that the closures were part of the “strategic plan to improve business performance.”
Advance Auto Parts currently has around 4,700 stores nationwide.
With the closures, 523 Advance Auto Parts corporate locations will shutter, along with 204 independent stores and four distribution centers, according to the release.
The exact states and addresses for the closing locations have yet to be released.
Florida has the most of any state with 522, and seven states — including Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia, have more than 200.
Advance Auto Parts is also changing its “store operating model” alongside the shutdowns, per Thursday’s release.
FORMAT UPDATE
The auto retailer wants to better its “labor productivity” through its market hub format as it continues “in a pace of new store openings.”
At least 60 market hub locations will open by the middle of 2027, offsetting a small portion of the closures.
Advance Auto Parts announced changes also come not long after it decreased its full-year financial outlook, per CNN.
It noted that American consumers “continue to feel the weight of an uncertain macroeconomic climate.”
Still, the auto retailer recently sold auto parts wholesaler Worldpac for a whopping $1.5 billion.
The over 700 closures from Advance Auto Parts come as part of a long listed of retailers who have shuttered locations in 2024.
Advance Auto Parts Brief History
Advance Auto Parts has been around for almost a century helping Americans with their vehicle needs.
Founded by entrepreneur and humanitarian Arthur Taubman
Taubman purchased two Advance Stores Company locations from the Pep Boys in the 1930s that were struggling
First original store before name change opened on April 29, 1932, in Roanoke, Virginia
Advance originally offered both auto and home supplies, even children’s toys
Didn’t change to solely an auto parts store until 1972
Opened first stand-alone Advance store a year later with strictly auto parts
Name didn’t change to Advance Auto Parts until 1985
100th Advance Auto Parts Store opened in 1987
Corporate headquarters currently in Raleigh, North Carolina
Shane O’Kelly current president and CEO after being appointed in 2023
Credit: Advance Auto Parts
RETAIL BLOODBATH
Some, like Big Lots, closed more than 500 stores as part of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.
Clothing retailers like Express and Rue21 also went bankrupt earlier this spring and axed hundreds of stores.
A few others, like Walgreens, alternatively shut around 1,200 locations to cut costs and improve business performance, similar to what Advance Auto Parts intends to do.
Even popular restaurants have taken some serious hits in 2024.
Red Lobster notably filed for bankruptcy and closed around 100 locations before it was saved by investors.
TGI Friday’s also closed a similar amount since 2023 and abruptly filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.
https://www.the-sun.com/money/12895134/advance-auto-parts-closing-locations/