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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Redline Automotive being bought

Advertiser Staff

Honolulu-based automobile parts retailer and distributor Redline Automotive will be sold with its sister company, C.W. Carter Co., to the majority owner of the National Automotive Parts Association.

Atlanta-based Genuine Parts Co. said it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Redline and C.W. Carter for an undisclosed price.

The deal is expected to be completed Nov. 1.

Three Redline stores on O'ahu, and three Auto Value stores on Kaua'i and one on Maui will be rebranded under the NAPA name within a year.

Also part of the sale are a warehouse and C.W. Carter operations that distribute parts to independent auto parts stores in Hawai'i. Together the two companies employ about 160 people.

Genuine Parts, which owns 95 percent of the NAPA distributorship, owns seven of the 32 NAPA stores in Hawai'i.

The others are owned independently but belong to the association.

Redline began in 1982 as Timber Town Auto, the auto parts department in the Timber Town lumber and home improvement store at Market City Shopping Center in Kaimuki.

In 1984, the company opened its first Redline store in Pearl City, and today also has stores in Mo'ili'ili and Kalihi.

In 2002, Texas-based GMOB Group bought Redline in a deal that made Redline the exclusive ACDelco distributor in Hawai'i.