Napa Auto Parts 2002 Annual Report Download - page 8

improvement in the automotive after-
market in the months and years ahead.
Vehicle demographics, miles driven and a
number of other factors are favorable for
our future in the Automotive segment.
In addition, we believe that our NAPA
marketing plans in the U.S. and Canada,
along with growth plans in our other
Automotive activities, will accelerate our
growth as we move through 2003.
After a slow start both Motion Industries
and S.P. Richards, our Industrial and
Office Products segments, posted sales
gains for the year driven by a positive
performance in the later months. Both
segments produced revenue increases of
5% in the final quarter and outpaced
market growth in their industries. EIS,
our Electrical segment, was down 6%
for the final quarter, and while we never
like decreases, this was their smallest
in a number of quarters and the worst
certainly seems to be behind us for this
business group.
We can quickly summarize by saying
that we believe each of our businesses
will continue a gradual improvement in
revenues in the coming months of 2003.
We see no major breakthroughs but just
steady improvement toward the mid
single digit range for GPC. We have
made our growth plans for 2003 with
no anticipation that the economy will
show meaningful change. We expect
that all our business segments will also
operate more efficiently so that earnings
growth will meet or slightly exceed our
revenue growth.
As a closing note on operations, we
believe we can do a better job of
managing our inventories in 2003.
Inventories are a major investment for
us and both our balance sheet and our
earnings will benefit from our efforts in
this area. Our Industrial and Automotive
operations in particular offer opportuni-
ties for meaningful improvement and
this will be accomplished without
impacting our service levels, which
remain excellent at this time.
GPC Directors
Two of our outstanding Directors,
Bradley Currey, Jr. and Alana S.
Shepherd, have reached the retirement
age for our Directors and will retire in
April. Mr. Currey is the retired Chairman
of the Board of Directors of Rock-Tenn
Company and has served on our Board
since 1990. Ms. Shepherd is Secretary of
the Board of Directors of The Shepherd
Center and has served as a Director of
the Company since 1993. We wish to
thank Brad and Alana for their years of
valuable service to our Company. They
have both been splendid contributors to
our Company and we will miss them.
We are asking the shareholders to elect
two new Directors at the April 21, 2003
Shareholders’ Meeting. The GPC Board,
at its scheduled meeting in November
2002, elected Dr. Mary Brown Bullock
and Mr. John D. Johns to serve on our
Board and invited them to be nominees
for election by the shareholders. Dr.
Bullock is President of Agnes Scott
College, in Atlanta, Georgia and is the
current Chair of the National Association
of Independent Colleges and Universities
(NAICU), an organization that represents
nearly 1,000 U.S. higher education insti-
tutions. Mr. Johns is Chairman, President
and Chief Executive Officer of Protective
Life Corporation, in Birmingham, Ala-
bama and has held positions of President
and Chief Operating Officer, and Chief
Financial Officer of Protective Life. Dr.
Bullock and Mr. Johns bring a high level
of expertise to our Board and we will be
most fortunate to have them join us. We
look forward to the strength and talents
they will provide in the coming years.
Looking Ahead
Despite facing a difficult economy
with no immediate signs of substantial
improvement, we look ahead to 2003
with plans for continued growth in both
sales and earnings. Most of our gains will
come from organic growth and increased
unit volume as we do not anticipate
material acquisitions in our businesses and
we expect only modest price increases.
We are fortunate to be market leaders in
each of our four business segments, and
the markets we serve remain highly
fragmented. Growth opportunities are
there for us and we are optimistic that
we can achieve market share gains as we
look ahead.
We hope you will take time to review
the remainder of the Annual Report.
Our plans and programs for our four
business groups are described in some
detail in these pages.
In closing, we thank our outstanding
group of customers, suppliers and the
entire GPC team for their dedicated
efforts in 2002 and their commitment
to a successful year of growth in 2003.
Respectfully submitted,
Larry L. Prince
Chairman of the Board
Thomas C. Gallagher
President
March 3, 2003
dividends per share*
IN DOLLARS
*Restated to reflect stock splits.
Date Amount One Share Became
March 1959 100% 2 shares
April 1962 200% 6 shares
December 1967 50% 9 shares
May 1970 50% 13.5 shares
May 1972 100% 27 shares
April 1979 50% 40.5 shares
April 1984 50% 60.75 shares
May 1987 50% 91.125 shares
April 1992 50% 136.69 shares
April 1997 50% 205.04 shares
summary of stock dividends
93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02
0.71
0.77
0.84
0.89
0.96
1.00
1.04
1.10
1.14
1.16
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