Thirty years ago, after Sam Honegger sold his local Yellow Cab company, he bought a small auto-parts store in Albuquerque in March 1981 that was advertised for sale in the newspaper. Despite having no experience in the automotive aftermarket, Sam was looking for a new challenge and was confident he could make it work.

“I thought, ‘What the heck, I’m a true entrepreneur—I’ll learn it,’” says Sam, who clearly had a vision for business.

Today, that vision has evolved from a single jobber store into Parts Plus of New Mexico (PPNM), a Network WD with a 40,000-square-foot main warehouse facility and eight company-owned locations making more than 800 daily deliveries throughout Albuquerque and the surrounding areas.

The WD utilizes a hot-shot process in which the warehouse will deliver the part directly to the service dealer should its company-owned stores have the part in stock, ensuring consistent, quality service.

PPNM’s commercial customers can procure parts on an unlimited basis at any time via their local Web server that interfaces directly with their inventory management system. Customers can see live inventory and price data online and execute orders on pick tickets directly into the warehouse. Their automatic call-distribution system routes calls the next available counter professional. The counter team answers 91% of the time within three rings and 96.5% within five rings. A dedicated printer is situated where the parts are pulled and staged in five to seven minutes before being routed directly to the customer.

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Parts Plus of New Mexico, Inc. is a wholesale automotive and truck parts distributor covering New Mexico and Southern Colorado. We service 8 company owned stores and 27 independent auto stores daily. Our fleet of over 40 vehicles provides the Albuquerque Metroplex with hot-shot delivery to all professional service centers and commercial/government fleets. We pride ourselves on high quality, branded parts availability and top service from the most experienced counter-pros in the city.

Brief Description and History of Parts Plus of New Mexico

Parts Plus of New Mexico, formerly Mor-Parts, Inc. was purchased by Sam Honegger in March 1981. After servicing the local Albuquerque commercial installer market for 15 years, Mor-Parts, Inc. changed its corporate name to Parts Plus of New Mexico in 1996. Parts Plus of New Mexico was accepted as a member in the Association of Automotive Aftermarket Distributors, (AAAD), an Illinois Not-For-Profit corporation with its principal offices in Memphis, Tennessee. AAAD does business as Parts Plus.

The Association of Aftermarket Distributors (AAAD) is comprised of forty-eight (48) members throughout the United States and Canada. The headquarter staff consists of twenty (20) individuals who provide purchasing, marketing and coordination support for each of its members. Each member serves on one or more of six (6) committees that coordinate the activities of the members. The members currently supply over one thousand (1000) auto part stores and one thousand two hundred and fifty (1250) Parts Plus Car Care Centers. Parts Plus is heralded as “The Champion of Brand Name Parts.” Our market strategy consists of promoting the brand name of the manufacturer and the vast majority of our product is sold in the original manufacturer box.

Mor-Parts originally operated as a wholesale distributor of starters, alternators, clutches and water pumps. In 1998, Parts Plus of New Mexico purchased the assets of Sandia Auto Electric/Lomas Warehouse. This purchase doubled the asset size of the Corporation and enabled Parts Plus of New Mexico to become a full-line warehouse capable of servicing in-town installers and out-of-town auto parts stores with a complete offering of auto and truck parts and accessories.

In May 2000, Parts Plus of New Mexico moved into a new 40,000 square foot warehouse at 5900 Office Boulevard, N.E. In March 2002, Parts Plus of New Mexico moved into its first new retail store facility at 765 Highway 550 in Bernalillo, New Mexico.

In December 2000, we purchased a state of the art fully integrated new computer system. We are on the cutting edge of technology with our online ordering website and our digital telephone call routing and tracking system. Our commercial customers can procure parts on an unlimited basis at any time via our local web server that interfaces directly with our inventory management system. Customers can see live inventory and price data on line and execute orders on pick tickets directly into our warehouse. Our automatic call distribution system routes calls to the next available Counterpro in an efficient manner. We answer 91% of all incoming calls within three (3) rings and 96.5% within five (5) rings. Our counterpros have access to the Internet for special orders and retrieving catalog information from our vendors.

In 2003, Sandia National Labs awarded us a 5 year contract with 3 one year options to run a Parts Plus store on Kirtland AFB to service the National Government fleet maintenance shop dedicated to Sandia National Labs. We also opened our Albuquerque Heights commercial hub store that same year. In 2004, Los Alamos National Labs awarded Parts Plus of New Mexico a 7-year contract to service their sub-contractor with light duty, heavy duty, and industrial parts.

In 2004, we purchased APA member warehouse, two generation family business Levy’s Auto Parts in Hobbs, NM and in 2005 purchased a similarly sized Pronto warehouse, two generation family business in Pueblo, CO called Pueblo Motive. In both cities, we have continued with very successful Parts Plus auto stores and have exceeded sales, management, and service expectations originally set. In 2005, we opened our Santa Fe commercial hub warehouse and in 2006 our store in Rio Rancho, NM. In 2008, Parts Plus of New Mexico acquired longtime local competitor, Federated Auto Parts (aka J & J Auto Parts). With this acquisition, we opened our Midtown Albuquerque hub-warehouse (9th company-owned location).

In 2009, Parts Plus acquired SLV Auto, Truck, & Ag in La Jara, CO just south of Alamosa. This store not only sells light and medium duty parts and accessories, but also a wide variety of farm and agriculture related parts. We service the San Luis Valley out of our 24,000 sq ft warehouse there in La Jara. In 2010, Parts Plus acquired B&B Brake and Suspension owned by Bobby Jackson. Known for its extensive product depth in the Undercar categories and its top-notch delivery service, the B&B acquisition complements the current infrastructure of Parts Plus and allows it to really strengthen its market share in Albuquerque. Parts Plus will consolidate its Midtown hub-warehouse location into the better located, 20,000 sq ft, Downtown building.

We currently purchase from seventy (70) vendors and manufacturers who all meet or exceed OEM quality in their parts. As demonstrated in our Quality Assurance Manual, our vendors are mostly publicly traded companies who have audited statements that attest to the quality of their products. As often as possible, we attempt to purchase parts from the original equipment manufacturer. For example, with respect to our air conditioning lines, we purchase Ford compressors from Visteon, Toyota compressors from Denso and General Motor compressors from Delphi. These are three (3) of the largest suppliers of original equipment parts in the world.

While registered as a Small Business with the state of New Mexico, Parts Plus ranks among the top 100 privately held business in New Mexico. In 2004, Quality New Mexico awarded Parts Plus of New Mexico the Pinon quality recognition award. In 2006, it was awarded a 15 year National GSA and Federal Supply Schedule contract award to do business with all federal government agencies (www.gsaadvantage.gov GSA# GS-30F-0002T). In 2009, we received an “exceptional” report card from GSA for our supply services.

Parts Plus of New Mexico will remain successful because of our ability to embrace and integrate new products, processes and business ventures. We have the attributes of a locally owned family business. Through our association with Parts Plus, we also receive the benefits that typically accrue only to larger corporations such as competitive pricing, National accounts, and identity.