Carlyle Fraser

Carlyle Fraser founded Genuine Parts Company in 1928 in Atlanta, Georgia, purchasing Motor Parts Depot for $40,000 and renaming it Genuine Parts Company. He developed the company's core philosophy of distributing only top-tier, guaranteed-quality automotive parts backed by unconditional guarantees. Fraser served as president and later chairman, guiding the company from a single store with six employees to a national distribution network. He was elected President of the National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) in 1941-1942 and served as director of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States (1940-1949). He also served as a delegate to an International Labor Conference in Paris in 1945. Fraser's vision of quality-backed distribution and cooperative relationships with independent stores became the foundation of GPC's business model.

Carlyle Fraser founded Genuine Parts Company in Atlanta on May 7, 1928, buying Motor Parts Depot for $40,000 and renaming it. The first store had six employees and posted about $75,000 of sales in its first year. Fraser's idea was that mechanics needed a dependable local source of quality, guaranteed replacement parts at a time when cars were spreading fast but parts supply was disorganized. GPC was an early member of the National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA), founded in 1925, and Fraser served as NAPA's president in 1941-1942. Under his leadership the company survived the Depression, partly by refurbishing used parts, and went public in 1948. Carlyle Fraser was born in 1895.