After five decades as a subsidiary of NAPA owner Genuine Parts Company, MRO and industrial technology giant Motion will once again become a separate company early next year.
GPC announced Tuesday that it intends to split up its automotive parts and industrial parts segments into two independent, publicly traded companies. The announcement coincided with the release of the company’s Q4 and full-year financial results.
The move follows an agreement last year with Elliott Investment Management, an activist investor that took a $1 billion stake in GPC and contended that the company’s share price “did not reflect the true value” of its auto and industrial businesses. GPC and Elliott reportedly launched a review of the company’s overall strategy and operations at the time.
GPC said in the announcement Tuesday that the move would create two “scaled market leaders” that would be better able to execute the strategies needed in their specific markets.
The company expects to complete the split in the first quarter of 2027; the official names, executive leadership and board members of the newly independent companies will be announced at a later date. An investor days event, to be held in the second half of this year, will address “strategic goals” for each business and initiatives to bolster growth and profits in the automotive segment.
“Creating two focused, independent companies sharpens customer and market alignment, increases clarity and speed, simplifies operations and enables disciplined, business-specific investments to unlock long-term value,” GPC CEO Will Stengel said in the announcement.
Motion, founded in 1946 in Birmingham, Alabama, was acquired by GPC in 1976. The nearly $9 billion distributor is the no. 2 company on ID’s Big 50 list. The Motion business, in particular, is “well-positioned to extend its industry leadership position in a fragmented $150 billion global market through its differentiated customer value proposition,” GPC officials said.
In GPC's financial results, Motion posted $2.2 billion in net sales in the fourth quarter of 2025, a 4.6% increase compared to the final quarter of 2024. The division’s comparable sales were up 3.4% year-over-year, while acquisitions and foreign currency impacts added 1% and 0.2%, respectively. Motion’s EBITDA of $295 million was up 8.7% in Q4, and its EBITDA margin of 13.4% rose by 50 basis points.
For the full year, Motion reported $8.9 billion in sales, up from $8.7 billion in 2024. GPC officials anticipate sales growth of 3% to 6% in the Motion business this year.
GPC as a whole reported a 4.1% increase in sales to $6 billion in the fourth quarter, but it also posted a net loss of $609.5 billion in the quarter. Full-year sales came in at $24.3 billion, an increase of 3.5% over 2024.
