Motion Industries has agreed to acquire Apache Hose & Belting Company Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Apache is a distributor of industrial hose and belting, specializing in fabrication of belts, hoses and cut and molded products.
Apache has seven locations in the U.S., with more than 2,500 customers in North American and Europe. The distributor has estimated annual revenues of $100 million.
Genuine Parts Company (NYSE: GPC), Motion’s parent company, has also agreed to buy Monroe Motor Products, Rochester, N.Y., a regional automotive parts distributor with 17 stores and a large hub location, which will consolidate into its U.S. Automotive operations and is expected to generate annual revenues of $25 million.
Genuine Parts Company reported sales for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017, of $4.1 billion, up 4% from the prior-year period. Profit was $158.4 million, down slightly from the same period a year ago. Sales at Motion Industries were up 7.1 percent, including a 4 percent same-store sales increase. Sales for EIS, the company’s electrical/electronic group, were up 11.6 percent, with same-store sales down 1 percent. Sales for office-products group S.P. Richards were down 4.7 percent for the quarter in both total and same-store sales.
Genuine Parts Company entered Europe in the third quarter with its pending acquisition of Alliance Automotive Group, but reported a “challenging sales environment” across all three of its primary segments.
Year-to-date sales through Sept. 30, 2017, were $12.1 billion, a 4.7 percent increase from the same period in 2016. Profit for the nine months was $509 million.
Fourth-quarter plans for Genuine Parts includes a focus on organic growth, as well as cutting costs and improving profitability.
