Auto Tire and Parts marks 110 years in business

The year was 1909.

Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House until March 4 when William Howard Taft was sworn in as the nation's 27th president and the face of another president, Abraham Lincoln, was added to the penny.

Pat Tlapek, who owned Auto Tire and Parts NAPA from 1948 until 1989, is pictured in 1984, during the company's 75th anniversary.Submitted

The United States Army Signal Corp Division bought the world's first military airplane, purchasing a Wright Military Flyer from Orville and Wilbur Wright.

With a population of just over 575,000, St. Louis was ranked as the fourth largest city in the nation.

And in Cape Girardeau, Auto Tire and Parts opened its first store on the corner of Broadway and Spanish Street in response to a customer's need for Model T parts (Henry Ford began making Model T automobiles the previous year).

This year, 2019, marks the company's 110th year in business. No one seems to know the exact date the business opened its doors, but it recently hosted an anniversary celebration for all of its employees.

In 1909, there were reportedly only 12 "horseless carriages" in all of Cape Girardeau County and the closest automotive parts stores were in St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee.

With only a dozen automobiles in the county at the time, Auto Tire and Parts supplemented its automotive business by also carrying wagon parts. The original store consisted of a parts counter and a machine shop housing the first welding equipment in Cape Girardeau.

As cars became more popular in the 1920s and '30s, Auto Tire and Parts focused more on automotive parts and eventually stopped selling tires (and today company representatives explain despite the elimination of tire sales, it was "too late" for the business to change its name).

Pat Tlapek purchased the business in 1948 and soon embarked on an expansion strategy. In the 1950s, Auto Tire and Parts opened stores in three more Missouri communities -- Sikeston, Perryville and Charleston.

Also during the 1950s, the Cape Girardeau store relocated to Ellis Street and added a warehouse. Expansion continued in the '60s and '70s, and in 1973, Auto Tire and Parts moved its Cape Girardeau warehouse to a new, much larger facility at its present location, 212 S. Kingshighway.

Pat Tlapek's son, John, joined the business full time in 1981, after growing up and working in various parts of the company while going to school. He bought the business from his father in 1989.

By the 1990s, Auto Tire and Parts had 13 locations. It was around this time John Tlapek brought in Mike Himmelberg, Bob Tlapek and Greg Stroup as co-owners to prepare the company for more expansion. Twenty years ago, as part of the company's 90th anniversary, Auto Tire and Parts opened its 25th location.

Today, 20 years later, the company has 50 locations and 400 employees throughout the region.

Hundreds of Auto Tire and Parts NAPA employees are shown outside the company's Cape Girardeau location in this undated photo.Submitted

"NAPA" was added to the company's name in 2002 when the National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) became Auto Tire and Parts' primary supplier of auto parts.

In addition to its retail stores, Auto Tire and Parts NAPA has a "tool truck," providing a "tool show on wheels" as well as a "heavy-duty" division that started in 2008, focusing on parts for medium and heavy-duty trucks and equipment. The company also has a paint, body and equipment supply division dating to the 1960s, servicing the needs of collision repair shops in the region.

The company's machine shop, heavy duty and paint, body and equipment supply divisions all utilize Auto Tire and Parts NAPA's logistics network, providing daily deliveries from the company's warehouse to all company locations.

Information for this story was provided to the Southeast Missourian by Sara Pullen, marketing coordinator at Auto Tire and Parts NAPA in Cape Girardeau.

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