ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 12, 1997 TAG: 9702120063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
Advance Stores Co. Inc., the family-owned auto-parts retailer based in Roanoke since 1932, said Tuesday it is putting itself up for sale.
The privately held company, operating Advance Auto Parts stores, is "exploring all possibilities," said company spokeswoman Betsy Parkins. Advance has retained the New York investment firm Goldman, Sachs & Co. to handle the search for a buyer. The company wants to wrap up the sale within six months, she said.
Company officials, including chairman and CEO Nicholas Taubman, were out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment, and Parkins said she could not comment on reasons behind the decision to sell. But the company is in good shape financially, she said, and Taubman, son of the company's founder, is in good health.
Questions regarding the involvement of Taubman's son, Marc, in the company are "strictly a family matter," Parkins said. As of late last year, Marc Taubman was assistant vice president of the company.
Advance operates 667 auto parts stores in 10 states, selling replacement parts generally to auto owners and small garages. Possible routes include selling the company or taking it public. Advance operates 10 stores and a distribution center in the Roanoke Valley. The company will not say how many people it employs.
Jack Seibald, who follows Advance competitor AutoZone Inc. for Blackford Securities Corp. in Garden City, N.Y., said the Memphis-based retailer may be interested in buying Advance. The two chains compete in many markets. The Roanoke company is, he said, the "most effective of the 'Zone clones,''' with stores and a philosophy similar to AutoZone's.
Advance "has sort of been playing its own game," he said, "and being a thorn to AutoZone."
Seibald said other possible buyers include the Pep Boys chain out of Philadelphia and Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck & Co., which has been building its auto division by buying smaller chains. But Advance's Parkins said there is no truth to a rumor that Sears is taking over the Roanoke company.
Seibald said the company could be converted to a public, shareholder-owned corporation, but only if it could prove its viability. Because Advance has been closely held by Taubman family members for so long and doesn't have a public track record, he said, that could be difficult.
Kenneth Smith, an analyst who follows AutoZone for Interstate/Johnson Lane, an investment brokerage in Atlanta, estimated Advance has annual sales of $300 million to $350 million. AutoZone, by comparison, reported annual sales of $2.6 billion from 1,500 stores.
Advance was founded in 1932 by Arthur Taubman, Nicholas Taubman's father, who bought three unsuccessful auto parts stores in Roanoke and Lynchburg. He pawned his wife's engagement ring and his own Masonic ring to make a down payment on the stores.
He turned the company around immediately; Advance Stores has said it has never had a money-losing year.
In addition to operating what's considered a major locally based corporation, the Taubmans have for years supported Roanoke-area education, religious organizations and social services through the Arthur and Grace W. Taubman Foundation Inc. In October, the Taubman family gave $500,000 to build a visitors center at Explore Park in memory of Arthur Taubman, who died in 1994 at age 92.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB