NAPA Denver Genuine Parts
Genuine Paints is not the traditional NAPA retail
operation. The Denver, Colorado, store has separate
paint offerings and even employs paint-dedicated
personnel, differing from most NAPA locations that
provide mixed inventories.
“Along with dedicated paint personnel, we have a
separate entrance and storefront for paints,” explains
Craig Meade, the store’s manager. “That is unlike other
NAPA Auto Parts stores, which may carry paint but cater
more to the auto parts side of NAPA.”
Adopting this format has doubled paint sales over a
traditional NAPA layout, with the store exhibiting
nearly double-digit, year-over-year increases in gross
paint sales. These numbers have positioned Genuine
Paints as a U.S. Top 10 NAPA stand-alone paint store.
Genuine Paints, technically a NAPA Auto Parts store
owned by Genuine Parts Co., shares an inventory with
Denver’s largest NAPA store and is located in the same
building a the company’s Denver distribution center.
“Fast, friendly service” is how Meade explains Genuine
Paints’ business style, while crediting the store’s
success to maintaining a stable business with
knowledgeable employees and ample, correct inventory.
“We believe that every customer should be treated the
way we would like to be treated if we were the
customers,” he says.
Genuine Paints’ customers –ranging from consumers
looking to repair or restore their own cars to fleet
managers responsible for numerous company vehicles to
collision-repair shops– benefit from the aforementioned
inventory that includes a broad selection of coating
products, courtesy of Martin Senour.
Diverse selection is important, say company officials,
as various customer segments prefer differing coating
solutions, and they’ll stick with the products that
perform best for them.
“Painters can be somewhat polarized,” Mike Chapman,
district sales manager for Martin Senour, recently
explained “When they get a product to work, they don’t
like change.”
Genuine Paints carries everything Martin Senour offers
in vehicle coating technology, according to Meade, as
well as the brand’s tapes, abrasives and adhesives. The
professional automotive refinishing lineup includes
VORTEX®, a waterborne basecoat; Tec/BASE®, a solvent
basecoat; and ICP15, a speed clear coat that air dries
in 15 minutes as compared to two-and-a-half hour dry
times typical of other brands.
Martin Senour offerings don’t end there. Fleet customers
tend to prefer its durable PRISM® line, according to
Chapman, while its Cross/FIRE® overall refinish system
and latest Pro/BASE™ are also popular refinish systems.
Several of these product lines are also excellent
options for customers applying custom finishes.
The unique configuration and business model of Genuine
Paints, coupled with its varied coating selections,
certainly have resulted in a successful bottom line as
well as a satisfied customer base.