One of Federated’s founding members, Fisher Auto Parts, is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year. Fisher Auto Parts has served both the installer and do-it-yourself customer since it was founded by Blair Coiner, grandfather of current Fisher CEO Bo Fisher.

In 1929, when the country was entering the Great Depression, Coiner founded his company with high hopes, perseverance and determination. He started by selling auto parts to car dealers, service stations and garages.  A Model T 1-ton truck ran a sales route from Winchester, Va. into North Carolina, rendering what he said was “dealer service of the highest character at all times.”
The company offered door-to-door service in 1933 with a fleet of six specially constructed trucks that carried hundreds of parts and offered mobile machine shop services. The salesmen traveled delivery routes that kept them out for up to a week at a time, servicing remote rural areas where replacement parts were hard to come by.

By 1941, the company had grown to 18 employees and serviced approximately 800 wholesale only accounts. Training and education were extremely important, even then, to providing quality service.  Employees and customers loaded onto buses for trips to manufacturers’ facilities for up-to-date training.

After growing to 60 stores and 300 employees, Coiner Parts changed its name to Fisher Auto Parts in 1983.  Art Fisher continued the company’s dedication to providing the professional installer with quality service that was second to none.  Art grew the business from one location up to nearly 300 in 14 states.  Giving customers name brand parts at competitive prices and the fastest, most accurate delivery service available was, and still is, the focus of Fisher Auto Parts.

Eighty-five years later, Fisher Auto Parts is still dedicated to the professional installer. Bo Fisher continues the commitment to “rendering dealer service of the highest character at all times.” The goal is to provide customers the best overall value in the automotive aftermarket.

Now with 470 locations, plus over 100 independent jobbers in 18 states, Fisher continues a steady growth strategy and has more than quadrupled in size over the last decade through a combination of same store sales, mergers and acquisitions.