Western Auto was bought by Beneficial Corporation in 1961; Western Auto's management led a leveraged buyout in 1985, leading three years later to a sale to Sears.
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14 Facts About Western Auto
2.
Western Auto originally started as a mail order business for replacement auto parts.
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3.
Western Auto had five regional distribution centers in the United States, with the North Carolina one serving its stores in Puerto Rico.
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4.
Western Auto was known for its Western Flyer and Performance Radial GT brands.
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5.
Western Auto was the parent company of Auto America and Parts America stores, as well as acquiring National Tire Warehouse stores.
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6.
Sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, or possibly earlier, Western Auto started selling rifles and shotguns in its catalogues.
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7.
Western Auto firearms sold under the "Revelation" brand name, and were generally models from the brands Savage, Marlin Firearms, or Mossberg.
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8.
Western Auto parts comprised a small percentage of the company's sales by the mid-1960s, and had nearly disappeared by the 1970s.
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9.
In February 1986, Western Auto purchased 40 White Stores in Texas from Canadian Tire for US$24.
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10.
In February 1987, Western Auto purchased Wheeling, West Virginia-based Tire America.
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11.
In 1995, Western Auto went into a buying spree involving two unrelated business transactions by acquiring 84 auto parts stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee from the bankrupted Nationwise Automotive chain in October for an undisclosed amount and later acquired Wheels Discount Auto Supply and its 82 auto parts stores in New York and Pennsylvania at the end of the year from its then owner Fay's Drug for $37 million.
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12.
From 1991 until the end of the 1997 season, Western Auto sponsored NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip's Winston Cup race team.
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13.
Additionally, Sears Roebuck received a cash payment of $175 million USD, while Advance Western Auto's investors provided a further $70 million USD directly to Advance.
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14.
Western Auto name was used by Advance Auto Parts in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, where it was the largest such chain, until 2006 when the last company-owned store in St Croix was closed.
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